The Darkness Inside
by AceLads
Summary: Born into darkness, his plans are to make the entire Digital World live in the same darkness so he will not be alone. In order to do that, he needs to snuff out Hope. Set during Adventure 01. -CURRENTLY ON HIATUS-
1. Preface

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

I got the idea for this story when I was watching Digimon Adventure 01 episode 45. In it, Piedmon slips this black orb into the back of Gennai's neck, but the story never addresses what it was or what it did. I decided to take this in my own hands and write a story from it, using the orb as the main focus of the plot.

This story is basically an alternate to Adventure 01, but I will still follow the main storyline of the series. I'm trying to keep in mind that TK is only 8 years old, but I'm not a huge fan of fluff writing and dialogue. I like to write more on a darker, less cheery side, but I will try to have some fluff and feel-good moments throughout this story.

I also will leave an author's note on each new chapter, but I will delete the author's notes from the previous chapters, except for this one.

* * *

Preface/Introduction:

The sun was shining brightly in the sky, a big ball of light that lit the entirety of the world. A cloud passing by here and there brings a temporary darkness, but the light still finds a way to shine through and eventually the cloud fades away. Floramon are soaking up the sun, its light replenishing their energy and brightening their moods. A Unimon flies to a nearby watering hole and roosts. Dolphmon can be seen hopping out of the water as they swim. Every digimon has its own unique place in the world and live together peacefully with one another. Each digimon has its own hopes and dreams and there's nothing preventing them from reaching their dreams. That world emanates joy, peace, hope. And he hates it.

Born into darkness. Never able to make it to the other side, the Digital World, but yet forced to watch its beauty and brilliance from afar. In the Digital World, digimon are free to do whatever makes them happy; they are able to enjoy a life happily with other digimon. They are able to digivolve, mature, live their lives to the fullest, and eventually be reborn again. There are digimon that experience complications with digivolution, and all of these failed attempts, all of those dark, negative feelings of not being able to digivolve are what he is made out of.

Fury builds up in him and he lets out a roar, which fades into nothingness the minute he stops. Darkness, that is all that surrounds him, that is what he is made out of. It's not fair that the other digimon get to live happy lives, while he is forced to suffer for all eternity by himself. No, he will not accept this. He will not be alone in this world of darkness. If he is forced to live into darkness then he will make every digimon live in the same darkness.

"Enjoy yourselves while you can."

* * *

"I assume the mission went well?"

He turned around to see Piedmon standing in front of him with the crests in hand.

Piedmon nodded, "As you see I have the tags and crests."

"And what of the digi-eggs and digivices?"

Piedmon quickly looked away. Hmph. He knew that this pawn of a digimon would fail him in some manner.

"Gennai took the eggs and digivices and fled before we could catch him."

"Very well."

He snagged the crests from Piedmon and the jester flinched, obviously thinking he was going to be punished for his failure. Of course he was mad, but he still was pleased to have the tags and crests, the devices needed to make the digimon in the digieggs stronger. This was a small victory, but he still could not underestimate his adversaries. Who knew what they had up their sleeve.

"There is good news! On his escape, Gennai dropped the digiegg of the bearer of light. We don't know where it is, but neither does Gennai."

Good. He looked at the crests one by one. Courage, friendship, love, sincerity, knowledge, reliability, light, and hope. None of these crests were familiar to him. He never experienced friendship or love, never had a reason to be courageous or sincere, never had anyone to be reliable to, never had anyone to share his knowledge with, never able to experience the warmth of light. Those crests meant nothing to him. But hope... This was the one crest he could not stand. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was created by digimon who had the hope of digivolving but failed. Just the essence of hop made him sick to his stomach. This digidestined was going to be his first target. Yes, he will take out hope from the digidestineds and the rest will fall like flies.

Despair, the pure opposite of hope. That was what he was made out of, all that he has ever known. That is what he will make the bearer of hope feel. He will snuff out the hope in the digidestined before he ever has a chance to experience hope's power.

He waved his hands around and a dark fog swirled. He kept rotating his hands in a

circular motion, the dark fog becoming more and more concentrated. He stopped and in

his hand was a pitch-black orb.

"Devimon!"

"Yes sir."

"This is your mission. Take this and insert it into the bearer of hope."

"How do you expect me to know which one of those fools is the bearer of hope?"

He chuckled, even though he found none of this to be amusing. He couldn't feel amusement anyways. "He will be the smallest of the digidestineds, and he will be the one that destroys you in the end."

Devimon grunted in disagreement. "I will not be defeated, just watch and see. I'll destroy those..."

"Enough."

Devimon instantly closed his mouth. The digimon would be a fool to do otherwise.

"Do you understand your mission?"

"Yes," Devimon answered, clearly annoyed.

"Good, now leave."

Yes, hope will be the first to experience the darkness that he feels every day. That darkness will destroy every bit of hope in the boy, and then the digidestineds and the entire Digital World will experience the darkness.

* * *

"Matt!"

His scream echoed against the mountain behind him, but none of his friends answered. This was not good. The other digimon hadn't been able to defeat Devimon even though they were able to digivolve. Now it was just him and Patamon versus the giant Devimon. They didn't stand a chance, especially since Patamon couldn't digivolve.

"You will be mine!"

He pushed himself up off his chest only to see one of Devimon's giant claws heading straight for him and Patamon.

"Hey, get ready to run," he heard Matt utter weakly off to his side. It was too late though. There was no running away, and even if he could where would he run to? All of their adventures up till now had been fun and even though they've had some battles along the way they always came up on top. Against Shellmon it was Tai and Greymon who took the lead. And then his brother and Garurumon took the plate against Seadramon. But now who was going to step up?

Patamon tried a Boom Bubble to stop Devimon, but the little guy didn't stand a chance. He saw Patamon's worried expression and that only made him more worried. Devimon's claw was getting closer.

"Patamon help!" he yelled out desperately, tears falling from his eyes.

"I'll save you TK!"

Before he knew it he had to close his eyes from the blinding light. He thought he felt Devimon's claw close in around him, but then it released just as quickly.

"What?" he heard Devimon yell, and then Devimon roared out in pain.

The light grew dim and he opened his eyes to see a bright white light floating in the sky followed by his partner's voice.

"Patamon digivolve to... Angemon!"

He did it! Patamon digivolved! And he didn't digivolve to Porkymon thank goodness. In the sky was what looked like an angel who was surrounded by aura of white light. Could that really be his partner?

He heard the others utter some silly remarks, but he couldn't pay attention to them.

"What's this? Another foolish attempt?"

"The forces of good are more powerful, even you can't stop us!"

He was amazed at how mature his partner sounded.

"I'll destroy you and bring peace to the island!"

He felt a vibration in his pocket and realized it was his digivice. Then a white beam of light shot directly at Angemon from his digivice. The others' digivices were doing the same thing. It all was happening so fast and everything was so bright. He barely noticed the other digimon dedigivolve to their rookie forms.

"That light is so bright. What are you doing to me?"

He couldn't help but worry. What was Angemon going to do? For some reason he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Stop it! I'm not going to allow you to take my power away! You'll have to fight me!"

That's what he was worried about.

"I'm afraid I have no other choice! If I can help others my fate is unimportant!"

His partner's remarks worried him even more.

"Angemon!"

"Your powers have gotten far out of control and must be extinguished. I am ready to fight for peace!"

"Now Ogremon!"

Ogremon jumped out of Devimon's stomach, which seemed really weird, but he couldn't think about that. Luckily the light around Angemon, which now was a mixture of gold and white, repelled Ogremon and the digimon flew away.

"Argh!"

He dropped to his knees, it felt like something had hit the back of his neck and went inside of him. The pain stopped, though, and he went back to watching the ongoing battle.

"Now you've done it!" Devimon said, almost sounding pleased. Why would Devimon be pleased with Ogremon when he did absolutely nothing. Maybe it had something to do with his neck hurting...

But he couldn't worry about that right now. Devimon was getting closer to Angemon, whose golden staff disappeared and was left with no weapon.

"Be careful!"

Angemon turned his head to the side and whispered, "I'll get him, relax."

"Come here pretty boy!"

Devimon's claws were going to crush Angemon. He could barely watch the battle.

"I'll stop you!"

Angemon thrust his arm forward like he was throwing a punch, and a golden beam of light shot from his fist and went straight thru Devimon. Then a white funnel cloud of light erupted. When it was dim enough for him to see, he saw both Devimon and Angemon floating in mid-air. Both of their bottom halves of their bodies were breaking into a million pieces, Devimon's into purple pieces and Angemon's into white.

"You have used up all your power! That wasn't very smart of you Angemon. Now you are of no use to anyone. You can't get away from the dark forces. Evil is everywhere, so don't savor your victory. There are other digimon that are just as powerful as I am, some of them are even stronger. I wonder what you'll do when you run into them."

Devimon's body was disappearing more and more. Now it was just his head and shoulders left.

"You haven't won at all! What a waste of time!"

Devimon laughed menacingly, but then he disappeared.

He looked back at Angemon who still had everything above his waist intact, but it was starting to change.

"Angemon!"

Angemon turned to him and offered a solemn smile.

"TK, I'll come back again, if you want me to."

This couldn't be happening. Patamon just digivolved and now he was disappearing before his very own eyes. He watched as the rest of Angemon's body broke into pieces and disappeared.

Tears rushed from his eyes. At that instant he heard a pop from inside of him and he started screaming out in agony. It felt like his body was being ripped apart into a million pieces, like something was being torn out of his very own soul. Then the pain stopped, at least the physical pain.

"Angemon!"

That was it. He never was going to see his partner ever again. Patamon had just learned how to digivolve and now he was gone, and there was nothing he could do to change that. If only he had been stronger, if only he could have helped Angemon in some way. Now he was never going to see Angemon again. What did it matter that they beat Devimon if he had to lose his friend. Defeating Devimon didn't make a difference if he was going to feel like this. And he was going to feel like this. All this despair, all this anger, all this... sadness. This was never going to leave him.

"You're right; you are going to feel this way forever. You are pathetic, useless, and your partner is never going to come back to you."

He didn't want to believe the words he heard inside his head. He shouted in reply, "You're wrong!"

Laughter. "Am I now? Why would your partner want to return to you when you weren't even strong enough to protect him?"

He knew the voice was right, but he couldn't accept the fact that Patamon was gone forever. Angemon said that he'd come back if he wanted him to. He definitely wanted Angemon to come back.

"No! Your digimon partner is gone! Destroyed!"

He shouted right back. "No! Angemon!"

He put all of his hope into that scream. He tried as hard as he could to will his partner back to him. He felt something inside of him protest and the pain from before returned, but he kept his mind focused on Angemon.

"Stop it child! Just give up!"

"No, I won't!"

At that moment the pain and the voice inside his head stopped. He put his hands on the ground to brace himself and he breathed heavily trying to catch his breath. Sweat was rolling down his face and dripping to the ground.

He noticed his eyes were clenched and decided it was safe to open them. When he did he saw a bunch of white feathers land in front of him. Once they landed in a neat pile, they started glowing and turned into something that resembled an egg.

"Impressive child, but I am not done with you yet. The orb has been planted and the darkness is already spreading inside of you. You don't stand a chance!"

The voice started laughing and faded away. He didn't notice he was trembling until his brother put his hands on his shoulders and tugged him in for a tight embrace.

"What do you know, it's a digi-egg!"

"Do you think it could be Angemon?" he asked to no one in particular.

"I know it is! He's just resting for a while to regain his strength."

"But don't worry. You'll see him again when he digivolves!"

"I will make sure to take really good care of him," he said as he picked up the egg and brought it in for a hug. "You saved my life Angemon!"

"Look, the island is coming back together again!"

He ignored the others dialogue as he focused on the egg, his partner. Patamon had come back for him, even though he wasn't strong enough to protect him. The voice was wrong, he wasn't going to be alone.

"Something's happening!"

This sparked his interest as a boulder that was in front of the group crumbled and projected a hologram of an old man.

"Ah, I've heard of you kids. And I can say I'm pleased."

Another complication in this weird world. More evil digimon that Devimon and Leomon alluded to, the searing pain and evil voice inside his head, and now this old, bearded man. But as long as he got Patamon back everything would work out alright. Wouldn't it?


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

* * *

Chapter 1:

"Tokomon! Tokomon, where are you?"

The others followed suit with similar shouts.

They had just arrived on the continent of Server and spent the night at a Pagumon village. TK knew there was something wrong with the Pagumon's behavior, it seemed like it was a big joke the digimon were playing on them, but then when they woke up Tokomon was missing. This wasn't a joke anymore.

Tokomon couldn't have left, right? Someone had to have taken his partner, who had just digivolved the previous evening at dinner. Maybe Tokomon didn't like him anymore and just wanted to get away from him. Feelings of sorrow continued to well up inside of him; could that really be what happened?

No, he couldn't believe that. Not after Tokomon came back for him after the whole Devimon thing; Tokomon wouldn't do that.

He and the others walked up to Izzy where the little genius had drawn a map of the surrounding area. He and his friends had split up to look for Tokomon and then reported back to Izzy, where he drew X's through the areas Tokomon wasn't found at.

"He's not in the village," Matt reported.

"Hm, can we hurry this up? I'm scheduled for a mud bath and a facial in half an hour," Mimi said.

Gomamon rolled his eyes and said, "Tokomon should know better than to interrupt your beauty treatments."

Mimi nodded, "You're so right!"

Joe burst out that Gomamon was being sarcastic, but TK didn't pay attention to the rest of their conversation. He just stared at the ground, worry etched all over his face.

"He's not by the waterfall," the Pagumon stated as they hopped towards Izzy.

"This is bad," Izzy spoke TK's mind.

"Where is he?" he wondered.

The Pagumon turned towards him and chuckled.

"What's so funny?" he questioned the Pagumon. This little trick of being good did not sit right with him at all; these Pagumon knew something.

"We weren't laughing!"

"No, we feel so bad that Tokomon is lost!"

Their words weren't sincere; this was all an act and he knew it.

"You tell me where Tokomon is this instant or I'll..."

"TK!" his brother said, while walking towards him and crouching down so that he was at eye level. "The Pagumon have been nice to us this whole time! I'm sure they had nothing to do with Tokomon's disappearance!"

The others nodded and looked at him with sympathetic expressions on their faces.

TK pulled away from Matt's embrace and paced around furiously. The Pagumon weere behind all of this, but their little facade tricked the others. How could they not see what he was seeing?

The others went back to Izzy as they looked at his map.

"Tokomon's small, so he can't have gone too far!" Izzy stated.

TK kept thinking of where the Pagumon would have taken his partner. Tokomon wasn't in the village, so where he could they have...

The waterfall! That's the area the Pagumon were responsible for, and of course they'd lie about Tokomon being there.

At that instant, there was smoke in the sky over by the river.

"It's Tokomon!" he exclaimed.

"No, really it's nothing. We looked by the river and didn't see a thing!"

"Well, it was possible that Tokomon arrived after you Pagumon searched the area," Izzy thought out loud.

Tai came down from his vantage point and said, "Hey, I'll check it out." He must have been worried about Agumon, since the digimon had been missing for so long.

"No, don't do that!" the Pagumon shouted.

TK was pleased that the others were starting to see through the Pagumon's fake kindness, but he couldn't wait any longer to find Tokomon. He started running towards the waterfall that instant.

He heard the others shout at him to come back, but he ignored them. He was running full speed at the waterfall, but his short legs didn't allow him to take very long strides. It wasn't long before Tai passed him and the others had caught up to him. Matt tried to scold him for running off like he had, but he didn't pay any attention to his brother.

As they got to the river they saw the watefall split open and Greymon shot a Nova Blast at these two standing rabbit-like digimon. The digimon fell into the river and were swept away by the currents.

"Tokomon!" he shouted as he saw his partner tied up and locked in a cage. He ran to his partner and freed him, giving him a big hug.

"Tokomon, I thought I lost you again!"

"I'm like a boomerang, I keep coming back!"

He was faintly aware that there were a bunch of Koromon tied up in cages as well and the others freed them.

"Well hello!" a mysterious voice said. It sounded like the voice was coming from some type of rock star or something.

Then a hologram appeared above the trees surrounding the river. The hologram was of an orange monkey wearing black sunglasses and holding a microphone. There was also an electric guitar strapped around the monkey's shoulders. TK didn't know how, but he could tell this monkey was evil even with his ridiculous appearance because of the shiver that ran down his spine.

"Hey you measly digidestined humans, thank you very much. Hello!"

"It's Etemon! Oh no!" the Koromon exclaimed, clearly afraid of this digimon.

"You little bratty kids messed up my beautiful plan, so now I'm going to have to punish you all by playing a little number I just wrote. It's called 'wrecking the whole place!'"

"Do you think he can actually do that?" Izzy asked.

As if answering Izzy's question, Etemon yelled, "Dark Network Concert Crush!"

A bunch of black, electrified cables started floating up towards the sky and then sent down lightening bolts of pure darkness. TK felt like he was hit by one of those darkness bolts and dropped to his knees. He put his hands over his head and wished for the pain to be stopped.

The others were helping their partners digivolve to their champion forms so they could fight Etemon, so Tokomon was the only one that noticed TK fall to the ground.

"TK, are you alright?" his partner asked him, clearly worried.

TK didn't respond. The darkness Etemon was using seemed to have some type of effect on him, but he couldn't understand why. The pain continued as the bolts kept getting nearer to them. Finally, one of them hit the rocks above them and the rocks came tumbling down.

"TK!" Matt shouted, noticing his brother wasn't running away. The rocks were about to land on them when Matt was able to help him up to his feet and escape the rockslide.

They kept running until they reached a dead end. Now that they were farther away from Etemon and his Dark Network, the pain TK was feeling started to ease up.

"What's this?" Tai asked.

The Koromon responded, "This is a safe place where we hide when anything bad happens to our village."

"What do we do now?"

Suddenly Tai's tag started to glow and the cave glowed as well with an orange color. They watched as the wall that had blocked them from continuing further shrunk to a small trapezoid.

"I think I know what this is!" Tai exclaimed.

"Ok, what?"

"A crest!"

The orange trapezoid slid right into Tai's tag, a perfect fit.

Once the excitement of getting a crest faded, they realized that they were now in a forested area that was surrounded by mountains. The Koromon said that these mountains were a long ways from their village, so the crest must have teleported them to this area to escape Etemon. TK was thankful as the pain he had felt was gone.

* * *

It was another sunny, beautiful day in the Digital World, but things were not what they used to be. In his world of darkness, Apocalymon had been able to create evil digimon that he sent out into the Digital World. Devimon was destroyed, but that digimon was meant to be destroyed; Devimon's only purpose was to infuse the littlest digidestined with that orb of darkness he had created.

That orb was one of his masterpieces. Inside of it was all of the sorrow, all of the pain, all of the darkness that he had to experience on a daily basis for all of eternity, all conveniently wrapped up into a tiny sphere. The orb was meant to be instilled into the young digidestined and then be broken, releasing all of that darkness into the boy's body, mind, and spirit.

His plan had not been going as according to plan, though. The orb could only be burst open by an act of true darkness. He had meant for that act to be giving up all hope after the boy's partner died at Infinity Mountain. But even with his persuasion, the digidestined was still able to hold on to hope and bring his digimon partner back to life.

That was not meant to have happened, but this was only a slight setback. Since the digidestineds were all connected because of their digivices, all that it took was for one of them to do something truly evil, and then the orb would break, and the boy would start losing his hope. He sensed that this time was approaching, as he watched the digidestined of courage lose control and try to force his digimon partner to digivolve to the next level so that they could defeat Etemon, one of his pawns. It was only a matter of time before his plan was set into motion. He would've smiled about the impending doom of the youngest digidestined, but this world prevented him from feeling joy. It was only a matter of time, though, till the entire Digital World felt what it was like to live with such darkness.

* * *

Soccer. As much as he thought it was silly for them to be playing a game in the Digital World, he had to admit that it would be nice to get his mind off of everything for a little while.

They were just about ready to start playing a game of digimon vs. humans when Tai kicked the ball away from them and scolded them, "I can't believe you're playing soccer at a time like this. Would you use your heads for something other than hitting the ball? The sooner Joe finds his crest the sooner we can leave."

'What a jackass' TK thought to himself. His mother would have scolded him for his language, but then again his mother wasn't here and it wasn't like he had said it out loud. Besides, it was true. Ever since Tai got his crest he had been acting like a big jerk. He felt that since Agumon was the only one to digivolve to the next level then he had to push his partner digimon as hard as he could. Apparently this meant stuffing Agumon with all of their food, and then scolding everyone for trying to have a little bit of fun.

"Haha! Who's the king?!"

TK recognized the voice; it was Etemon. They all started running away towards Joe, who was standing in the soccer goal for some reason. Once all of them were surrounding Joe, the soccer goal fell down and trapped them.

"Goooooal! I sure did it, I scored a goal!" Etemon mocked them.

Tentomon tried to break through the net, but was electrified on contact; they couldn't escape.

Etemon went into this long speech about not being there in person and there being a special guest. When Tai asked who it was, a Greymon with a black collar around its neck crashed into the coliseum. Somehow Agumon wasn't trapped, maybe he couldn't keep up with their running because of all the food he ate. At any rate, Tai realized that Agumon was the only digimon that could do anything and had Agumon digivolve. A battle then ensued; Greymon vs. Greymon.

Unfortunately for them, their Greymon was much too slow to keep up with the other Greymon because of all the food in his stomach. Tai realized that Greymon didn't stand a chance and continued to will his partner to digivolve. TK felt a chill rush down his spine, similar to the one he felt when Etemon used dark lightening bolts to attack them. Since that time, TK realized that the pain he felt had something to do with darkness or some type of evil force. The previous time it had been Etemon's attack, but what could be causing him to feel this now?

During this time, the battle was only getting worse for Greymon. He was being swung around by his tail and then thrown into the stands. This was not looking good for them.

Gomamon tried to help by using his Marching Fishes attack. Rainbow colored fish swam out of this weird statue, flew over to a Gazimon on top of the statue, stole the fireworks from the Gazimon, and then threw them at the Greymon. This gave them some time to think of a way to get out of there. He, Matt, and Izzy had noticed that one of the tiles underneath them could be lifted, and they proposed that they dug their way out.

There was some rock underneath them with a strange symbol on it. Joe's tag started reacting and the stone began to glow. It was just like when Tai found his crest. The stone shrunk to a little trapezoid and they all cheered that they had found another crest. Unfortunately for them, that rock was the thing they had been standing on, so when Joe got his crest they ended up falling down into some pit. When they recovered from the fall, Tentomon found a tunnel and they were able to escape.

Once they climbed out, they were able to see the battlefield. Greymon was caught by his throat and the other Greymon rammed him into the stadium. TK felt the same chill he felt before, but this time it was strong enough to make him gasp and drop Tokomon.

Tokomon was trying to talk to him, but the pain only intensified.

"Don't stop me, this is my chance to make him digivolve to the next level. Please mind your own business Sora."

Tai, it was Tai that was causing him to have this pain. His will to force Greymon to digivolve was about to cause something bad to happen. He tried to call out for Tai to stop, but it was already too late. Tai had run out into the middle of the battle, obviously forcing himself to be in danger to make his partner digivolve.

The others digivolved so that they could help Tai out, but it was already too late.

"You can do it Greymon! Digivolve!"

This caused TK to drop to his knees in horrific pain. It felt like his entire body was on fire. He looked up and tried to shout out desperately to Tai, but there was already darkness shooting out from Tai's crest towards Greymon. He watched as beams of darkness shot into Greymon and Greymon started digivolving. TK never saw the end result because the pain intensified, which he didn't think was possible. He tried to fight the pain, but it was too much for him. He blacked out.

* * *

"TK!" Joe shouted as he watched the young boy suddenly collapse to the ground. The others didn't see what was happening to TK because they were worried too much about Tai and the ensuing battle. TK looked out to the battle and tried to say something, but he couldn't utter the words. TK then collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

Joe dropped to his knees beside TK, but flinched when he saw a dark wisp of air float out from the back of TK's neck. Soon there was a dark aura emanating from the boy. Joe tried to touch his friend, but retreated his hand because of the burning sensation he got when he touched the darkness surrounding TK.

He saw a fire red light off to his side and looked out to see dark beams of something shoot directly into Greymon causing the digimon to... digivolve.

Once the digivolution was complete, a huge creature made of bones with a giant missile on its back replaced Greymon. Could this be Greymon's next digivolution? It all seemed wrong to him, but the others were all focused on SkullGreymon and not on TK, so he returned his attention to the unconscious boy.

Joe could see that TK was still breathing, but the boy did not move an inch.

"Joe? What's wrong with TK?!" Tokomon asked him.

"What's going on Joe?" Gomamon asked as well.

"Uh, guys...?" he tried to call out to the others, but no one was paying him much attention. They were too busy with... Joe looked back at the digimon Greymon had become and shuddered at the sight. That digimon really gave him the creeps, but he had to be brave right now.

Joe was lucky he had looked at that time because SkullGreymon picked up one of the soccer goals, crushed it in his claw, and then tossed it their way. Reacting on pure instinct, Joe scooped up TK into his arms and ran to dodge the assault.

Once out of harm's way, Joe looked back to see that Birdramon's, Garurumon's, and Kabuterimon's attacks had no effect on SkullGreymon and the evil digimon simply swatted them away like gnats. Luckily, SkullGreymon decided to run out of the coliseum without attacking them, and rampaged out into the desert. They watched as SkullGreymon ran and then stopped, let out a deafening roar, and started emanating dark air from his body. SkullGreymon started glowing a gold color and started dedigivolving.

The others started running towards SkullGreymon, and Joe followed, TK still in his arms and Tokomon trying his best to keep up with them.

When they got to the scene, SkullGreymon had returned back to Koromon. Joe felt TK start to shake as they got closer to the Koromon, but once all of the black air had dissipated, TK stopped.

Joe was gasping for air. He had gotten in better condition since they had been in the Digital World and all they seemed to do was run all the time, but carrying TK with him proved to be tiring. The little guy was heavier than he looked, or maybe Joe simply wasn't that strong.

Joe carefully laid TK down on the sand before his arms had time to give out on him. He tried to regain his breath, while also trying to get the others' attention.

"Uh... guys?"

No response.

"Guys?"

Still no response.

"GUYS!"

They all turned around at his sudden outburst.

"Joe?! What the he..." Matt started, but then the blonde saw his little brother lying down on the ground unconscious. "TK!"

Matt rushed to his brother's side and the others stood around TK as well.

"What happened Joe?" Sora asked.

"I... I'm not quite sure," he replied.

Matt grabbed him by the shirt collar and yelled at him, "Why didn't you tell us TK was injured back in the coliseum!"

He tried to respond, but didn't know what to say in response to the blonde's ferocity.

"Lay off Matt!" Izzy exclaimed.

Matt's eyes continued to shoot him a cold glare, but Matt did turn back to TK.

"What's wrong with him Joe?" Mimi asked.

"I..." he tried to find the words, it all had happened so fast, "Greymon was fighting the other Greymon and when Tai rushed out into the middle of the battle, I noticed TK drop to his knees. I think he was trying to get your attention Tai, maybe trying to get you to stop, but then Greymon started digivolving. TK was then surrounded by this dark, black air, almost like the digimon do when they digivolve, but it was pitch black. SkullGreymon then attacked us, and I carried him out here. That's really all I know."

The others didn't know what to say. Tai looked down at the ground, "Was this all my fault? Did I not just hurt Koromon, but TK as well?"

"Tai, I'm sure this is not your fault," Sora tried to reassure, but she wasn't entirely certain that was true.

Matt stood up and glared at Tai, shaking in anger. "Of course this is all your fault Tai!"

The others tried to calm Matt down, but the blonde looked like he was ready to rip off Tai's head. Matt was about to charge when Joe got up and held him back. Matt tried to break free, but Joe held firm.

"Matt," he said, "Calm down now. You need to be focused on helping TK, not hurting your friend."

Matt started to stop struggling, but he still held an evil look in his eyes.

"We can't be certain Tai is the one to blame here Matt, and Joe is right. It is not beneficial for us to start fighting each other, especially when one of us is hurt."

"Izzy's right," Mimi chimed in.

Matt still looked like he was angry at Tai, and Joe couldn't blame him, but they didn't need a fight to start amongst themselves. Thankfully Matt backed down and returned to TK's side.

Tokomon was nudging at TK's side and muttering the boy's name. Joe looked at everyone else, who all looked confused, hurt, and worried. He couldn't help but wonder if coming to Server was even worth it after all the trouble they've faced so far. Matt and Tai were fighting, they still couldn't digivolve to the next level, TK was unconscious, and Etemon was still out there trying to hunt them down. He wished they would've stayed at File Island and never come to Server.

* * *

Don't forget to leave a review!


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

* * *

Chapter 2:

Lost in a desert. Figures they would have this luck. Come to think of it, he didn't even remember when they first entered this hot, barren land of sand, it's been so long. He had cottonmouth and a light headache, both probably caused by dehydration. They probably wouldn't make it out of this desert.

"Earth to Palmon! Come in!" Matt said.

Palmon was busy daydreaming about finding some large cactus so they all could sit in the shade. It was pointless to daydream like that. Why wish for something to happen when you know it never will.

"Palmon!" Mimi exclaimed, "Look!"

This drew the group's attention as Mimi pointed in front of them. A large cactus, about the same height as his old home, Highton View Terrace, appeared in front of them.

Gasps of excitement surrounded the group as they all ran off in the direction of the cactus; well, everyone except him. Matt quickly noticed TK wasn't with the group and stopped instantly.

"TK, come on!" Matt urged, trying to get TK to catch up with the others.

TK shook his head and continued to walk, refusing to run. What was the point? They hadn't noticed the cactus there before, and they definitely would have saw something that big sooner. It had to be some type of mirage.

Matt grabbed his hand, refusing to maintain TK's slow pace and started running to catch up with the others. The others had stopped in front of the cactus, but when they caught up they realized there was no shade. The cactus then disappeared.

"It's a mirage; we've been tricked!" Yamato exclaimed.

Everyone fell to the ground in disappointment.

Suddenly a metal circle appeared and a rainbow light shot out from it. Then an old man appeared, in holograph form. He recognized the old man; it was Gennai. The last time they saw Gennai was when...

TK reached up to his head to pet Tokomon to make sure his partner digimon was still there. He was struck by a pang of guilt remembering the time his partner had sacrificed himself to save everyone else, and then died because TK wasn't strong enough to help his partner.

While he was regaining his focus, the others talked to Gennai about the tags and crests. Mimi complained that they were more troublesome then beneficial, but he knew that was only because of Tai's incompetency in helping his partner.

Gennai then went off in an explanation of how the crests were really important and powerful and that they should trust him because he was the floating glowing guy. TK was unamused.

Then Gennai continued, "As for Koromon, he wouldn't be so helpless if you had known how to care for him in the proper way."

Tai gasped, "But I did the best I could!"

"Patience is what you need to learn my friends..." Gennai started, but TK lost interest in the conversation. He was drawn to Gennai's previous statement about not being able to care for the digimon in the proper way. Is that why Angemon had to die? Because he wasn't capable of caring for his partner in the proper way?

He then noticed Gennai was, for lack of better word, glitching. Matt tried to get Gennai to stay to talk about TK, but Gennai was gone. TK was pleased; he didn't want Gennai to know about what had happened to him.

Ever since he passed out at the coliseum, the others had treated him like he was a fragile little boy. Well, they always treated him like that, but now it was, like, multiplied by ten, especially by his brother. He didn't need Gennai to say something confusing about what had happened that made the others worry even more than they were.

"Are we being cared for properly?" Biyomon asked.

That question sparked a pretty negative conversation among the group. He dropped his head and looked at the sand. Tokomon nudged him and he picked his partner up into his arms. Tokomon looked at him with a smile and said, "Don't worry TK; I think you're taking care of me!"

He didn't believe his partner one bit. He knew he wasn't taking good care of Tokomon, and Tokomon probably would be better off without him. He wondered if Tokomon felt the same way deep down but just wouldn't say it to his face. That probably was the case.

He jerked his head up when he heard what sounded like a boat horn. They all looked up to see a cruise ship sailing towards them at a high speed. He wondered if it could be another mirage, but he saw the sand the boat was kicking up. As the boat started to pass them, it slowed down and came to a stop. A Numemon popped its two eyes out to look at them before saying, "Ahoy!"

Tai asked for the digimon to let them on the boat, but Mimi interrupted and attempted to charm the smelly digimon. "Well, hey there big boy! Your ship looks so, so inviting. How about letting us on board so we can check it out. Oh, pleeease!"

It must have worked because the Numemon let down a ramp that led right up to the cruise ship.

"Is it safe?" Joe asked, but no one paid him any attention as they ran up the ramp.

TK slowly followed from behind as they entered the inside of the cruise ship only to see that it was empty. They then ran off into separate directions to explore the ship.

He, Izzy, and Matt found a room that was full of various foods and drinks. Izzy tried to reason whether or not the food was safe, but he didn't matter. He got a plate and filled it up with a little bit of meat and potatoes and then got a glass of water. Upon seeing him start eating the food, Izzy, Matt, their partners, and Tokomon all attacked the buffet like wild animals. TK looked and saw Tokomon was happy and the others were too busy eating for them to notice him, so he snuck away from the buffet room.

He left the inside of the cabin to return to the upper deck. Tai and Joe were lying in pool rafts they had found and Gomamon was floating nearby. Koromon was asleep underneath an umbrella guarding Tai and Joe's tags and crests. TK saw a lounge chair next to Koromon in the shade and made his way over towards it.

Once he was plopped down in the chair he let out a deep breath that he had been holding in since he had woken up from the whole SkullGreymon incident. Besides Tai and Joe, who were too wrapped up in a conversation to pay any attention to him, and the floating Gomamon and sleeping Koromon, this had been the first time he had been alone to think about what all was going on.

Since he had regained consciousness, he felt like a new person, but not in a good way. He felt sad all the time, and constantly felt like an outsider to the others. His old life before the SkullGreymon incident seemed like a dream to him. He almost felt like he was starting a new life, but this one was filled with negativity, doubts, frustrations, and... darkness.

The only thing that he felt had stayed the same was his care for Tokomon. For some reason his life felt so uncertain, but Tokomon was his anchor. That being said, his feelings of not being able to be enough to protect Tokomon and take care of him was intensified. He wanted to leave Tokomon and the others because they probably would be better off without him. No, they _would_ be better off without him. Besides, if he left he wouldn't have to worry about his brother and the others constantly breathing down his neck, which was getting really frustrating, and he had to refrain himself from yelling at them to back off.

As he sat in the shade, he debated on running off right then, but then a shiver went down his spine. He realized he had felt this feeling before; when Etemon attacked them with his Dark Network and when Greymon digivolved to SkullGreymon. But this time was a little different. He felt as if something was calling for him, drawing him nearer. He instantly stood up and maneuvered his way to the ramp, careful not to bring attention to himself. He went down the ramp and walked around to the backside of the boat. The feeling got stronger as he continued walking. Then he saw something in the sand, a black cable that looked strangely familiar, it was Etemon's dark network.

The black cable was connected to the ship and went off through the desert for many miles. He walked up to the cable and picked it up. He could feel energy rush through him, but not in a painful way. The feeling was almost... empowering. That's when he noticed that he was emanating this dark aura and his digivice was responding. He removed the vibrating device from his pocket and was shocked to see that it had turned a light gray color, which contrasted his memory of the device being silver. The buttons had also changed to a grayish-blue color. When he dropped the cable, his digivice stopped shaking and the energy rush he had felt stopped. He picked up the cable again to make sure he wasn't daydreaming, but the same thing happened.

He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't have time to think about it right now. The black cable meant that Etemon had something to do with this cruise ship appearing. As much as he was annoyed with his friends, he still wanted to protect them, especially Tokomon. He quickly ran back to the ship only to hear a battle going on top of the upper deck.

"Marching Fishes!"

"Pepper Breath!"

"Petra Fire!"

He ran up the ramp and crouched down when he got to the top. He saw Tai and Gomamon were caught in some net thanks to the Numemon, and some bird digimon picked up Tai and Joe's crests and ran off into the ship. He also noticed Agumon and Gomamon, but they had been turned to stone.

The Numemon proceeded to reeling Tai and Joe in. This was his time to sneak back onto the ship.

He quickly ran towards the lounge chairs he had been relaxing on and ducked down behind it. He saw a Numemon look around confused, but then resume reeling in his digidestined catch. He then ran into the ship and saw a bunch of Numemon in the room Mimi and Sora had run into to take a shower earlier on. There also were sounds of another battle going on which we were coming from the buffet room. Tokomon!

"Petra Fire!"

No, he was too late. Before he had time to think, he had to duck underneath a table as the bird digimon, Kokatorimon he thought he heard Gomamon say before he became a sculpture. Kokatorimon went off into the room with all the Numemon in, while more Numemon went into the buffet room and came out with Matt and Izzy tied up in ropes. Once the Numemon were gone, he ran into the buffet room to find Gabumon, Tentomon, and Tokomon all turned into stone as well.

"Tokomon!" he exclaimed. He ran to his partner and attempted to pick him up, but his partner was much too heavy for him to lift. He cursed underneath his breath and turned towards the room Kokatorimon had run into. The digimon then came running out of the room. Fury ran through him and he started to shake in anger. He was not going to let Kokatorimon get away with this.

He sped off into the direction the digimon ran off only to hear another battle going on.

"Spiral Twister!"

"Poison Ivy!"

"Petra Fire!"

He turned the corner expecting to see another pair of digimon statues, but instead he saw Sora, Mimi, Biyomon, and Palmon escape, but with Kokatorimon not far behind. TK quickly followed as they made their way to the back of the ship on the top deck. As he exited the inside of the cruise ship, he saw Sora and Mimi cornered by Kokatorimon.

Kokatorimon was laughing, thinking that he was going to be victorious. Sora and Mimi had frightened looks on their faces, Biyomon and Palmon were in a fighting stance, but the digimon knew they had no chance against Kokatorimon.

"Time to walk the plank!"

He ran as fast as he could towards Kokatorimon and leaped into the air clutching onto Kokatorimon by the digimon's throat.

The digimon gasped in surprise and Sora and Mimi also uttered surprised remarks, but he couldn't hear them as he was holding on for his life as Kokatorimon spun around trying to throw TK off of his back.

"Digivolve!" he shouted, hoping Sora and Mimi would understand. Kokatorimon was finally successful in flipping him off and he skidded against the deck of the boat and hit the wall pretty hard.

"I missed a child!" Kokatorimon exclaimed, but then started laughing. "I've never tried turning a human into stone, but you have sparked my interest! Petra..."

"Meteor Wing!"

"Needle Spray!"

Kokatorimon yelped in pain as he was struck by Birdramon's and Togemon's attacks. TK was thankful the others understood his message and helped just in time. Togemon then threw two strong punches at Kokatorimon who flew into the funnel of the ship and then the funnel exploded like a canon.

"Fried Chicken!" Mimi yelled happily, as Birdramon and Togemon dedigivolved to their rookie forms. The girls and their partners ran over to him and Sora spoke up, "TK, are you ok?"

He was already on his knees, recuperating from the blow he took. He looked up to Sora and nodded.

"What were you thinking?" she asked.

He instantly felt anger boil inside of him and was about to yell at Sora before he took a deep breath and said, "It doesn't matter. Let's just go make sure the others are alright."

"That's a good idea," Mimi said nodding.

Sora still looked at him worriedly, but he didn't pay her any attention. Instead, he ran back into the ship towards the buffet room. He saw Gabumon, Tentomon, and Tokomon walk out of the room with confused looks on their faces.

"Tokomon!" he yelled out. He ran to his partner, dropped to his knees, and gave his partner a tight hug.

"TK! Where were you? We were all eating but then Kokatorimon attacked us and that was when I noticed you were gone."

"It's ok Tokomon," he said, "I'm here now."

After their reunion, TK, Tokomon, Gabumon, and Tentomon joined Biyomon, Palmon, Sora, and Mimi in helping untie the others. Once Matt was free, he ran over to TK asking if he was all right. TK rolled his eyes and grew annoyed by Matt's worries, but once they were free they decided to leave the ship as quickly as possible.

Before they knew it, they were back wandering through the desert as if the past hour on the cruise ship didn't happen. Sora and Mimi had explained to the group that TK had tried to fight Kokatorimon, which Matt scolded him for doing so. They were about to go into detail about his little stunt, but the ship horn was heard from close by.

They all turned around to see the cruise ship charging towards them at a fast pace. They started running only to see another giant cactus in front of them. This cactus, though, actually cast a shadow, so they quickly ran to the other side. The cruise ship ran into the cactus, which bent due to the weight of the ship. But the cactus served as a loaded spring as it flung the ship back in the opposite direction. That was the last of Kokatorimon and that cruise ship.

Now that the threat was gone, they were able to marvel at the cactus and enjoy its shade. Mimi said that it was taller than a skyscraper, voicing TK's previous opinion. Palmon asked what a skyscraper was, but all of their attention was drawn to a bright light at the top of the cactus. A pink flower sprouted out revealing a stone with a symbol etched on it that looked like a raindrop. Mimi's tag then started to glow as the rock flew down towards them and started to glow and shrink. Finally, the crest was locked into Mimi's tag, revealing a green crest with the same symbol on it; the crest of Sincerity.

"I don't deserve it, but if it will help me take better care of Palmon..."

The idea of a crest didn't appeal to TK. Whatever crest he got, he probably wouldn't be able to activate it and it probably would just be useless. But then the thought of having the crest just to be able to protect Tokomon better, as Mimi said, appealed to him. He was happy for Mimi and even looked forward to getting his own crest, but these positive feelings seemed to drain him. This draining feeling on top of his little fight with Kokatorimon made him feel exhausted.

"Let's make camp here and stay for the night," Tai ordered. Everyone agreed, to which he was grateful. He dropped to his butt and took his backpack off. He lie down and used his backpack as a pillow. Tokomon cuddled up next to him and instantly went off to sleep. He petted his digimon partner's head, while Matt also crashed down next to him, looking like he wanted to ask him a bunch of questions. Luckily Matt stayed silent, leaving TK to enjoy the quiet, shade, and proximity with his partner. TK closed his eyes and before he knew it he had fallen asleep.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon

* * *

Chapter 3:

Great, another Kuwagamon. Once they had woken up from their campsite at the giant cactus, they decided to continue venturing off through the desert. It was about midday now, according to the position of the sun, and a wild Kuwagamon had come up out of the sun attacking Tai and Agumon. The partner digimon were yelling out for Agumon to digivolve, but Tai and Agumon didn't move; they were almost petrified in fear. He couldn't blame them, especially after what happened the last time Agumon digivolved, but that didn't help his friends. Kuwagamon was about to chop Tai and Agumon in half, when there was an explosion. Sand flew around in response to the explosion, and when they could finally see again they saw Kuwagamon was gone and Tai and Agumon were half buried in the sand.

They all were trying to figure out what had happened when they heard a high pitched voice uttering some kind of chant. They looked to the source of the sound to see some pink ball marching with a spear in hand.

"A powderpuff with wings!" Mimi yelled happily.

"Just don't use it on your face," Sora said dryly.

"Where's Kuwagamon?"

"Maybe that's him," he muttered quietly.

The little digimon stopped and turned around, "Ha! I am no enemy, nope nope. If anything you are your own enemies."

Biyomon ran towards the digimon excitedly, "Oh! I've heard of you. You're the famous Piximon, right?"

Mimi picked up the strange digimon in her arms. "You are?"

"Piximon is famous in the Digital World for his skills in training, but few have ever met him. His secret home is the training ground for all the great digimon fighters," Biyomon continued.

"And I've heard all about you too, but so far I am not impressed. You seven are supposed to be the digidestineds. Ha! You better be more careful or you'll end up being digi-dinners, yup yup. Without my spear and my magic, Kuwagamon would be eating you with a side of digi-fries."

"That's gross, thanks a lot," Mimi retorted.

"And that's not all. You digimon there; you're supposed to protect the children, but half the time they're protecting you. I want to see some guts; I want to see some courage!"

"But the news isn't all bad," Piximon continued, "Yup yup! From now on you all are going to train with me, especially you two guys." Piximon pointed at Tai and Agumon, "You two heard me. You need lots of help, and I have a special extreme training program just for you!"

Piximon then started marching off into the desert expecting them to follow, but no one budged.

"Should we trust a ping-pong ball with wings?" Joe asked to the group.

A conversation then followed where they debated following Piximon or not. Eventually the group decided it was safe, and then ran off to catch up with the tiny digimon.

TK stayed at the back of the group with Tokomon and his brother, as they continued to follow Piximon for what seemed like hours.

"Are you ok, TK?" Matt asked for about the tenth time since they escaped Kokatorimon's cruise ship. TK was getting annoyed by his brother's constant nagging and replied with a strained voice, clearly filled with annoyance, "I'm fine Matt."

This tone only seemed to worry Matt more, but at least it stopped Matt from talking. They continued walking in silence when Piximon stopped and announced, "Halt! We have arrived."

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, "There isn't anything here."

Piximon then flew into the air and started twirling his spear around like a baton. "Pixi portal!"

Then this hole appeared, revealing a lush green jungle. After some debate, they decided to enter. The others complimented Piximon for his home when Sora looked back and announced that Etemon was here. Piximon explained that Etemon could not see through the barrier his home was encased in, so they were safe for the moment. Everyone let out a sigh of relief and they continued walking until they approached a set of what seemed like an infinite amount of stairs that led up this mountain to a house at the very top.

"Alright everybody, home we are. My house is just up these steps."

"We have to walk up there?"

"But I didn't bring my stair-climbing sneakers!"

"Yeah, and I just remembered that I am afraid of heights."

"Purely from a logical standpoint... it doesn't appear very safe."

"Is this part of our training?"

"Exactly!"

They all groaned, realizing the difficult task they had ahead of them.

Tentomon tried to explain he'd fly up to the top, when Piximon added the no-flying rule and then, "Haven't you rookies learned that the easy way is sometimes a trap!? Now, let's move out!"

The sun in the sky continued to fall as they kept climbing up the steps. The sky was now a dark red as the sun was about to disappear. He had to admit that he was getting pretty tired after all of this climbing.

Finally, they reached the top of the stairs and entered Piximon's house. Well, the place was more of a mansion. The building was circular, and in the middle was a huge stone statue of Piximon, spear and all. Piximon was marveling at the statue when Joe spoke up, "You said something about food...?"

"Ah yes," the little digimon exclaimed, "But first you have to earn it!"

Piximon then spun his spear around again, and pails of water and a bunch of cloths and brushes dropped to the floor.

"I want you all to scrub the floors! All the floors!"

They all started complaining, but Piximon hushed them and pointed at Tai and Agumon. Piximon explained that his special training for those two did not involve scrubbing the floors. He then left with Tai and Agumon, while the rest of them groaned in annoyance, but complied to Piximon's order.

"TK, let's have a cleaning race," Tokomon suggested, but TK simply glared at the digimon.

"No way," he stated simply.

"TK!" Matt scolded, "What was that all about?"

"Cleaning's not fun," he answered.

"But we can make it fun," Tokomon spoke up, a little hurt at TK's sharp response.

TK shook his head. "I'm going to get started over there," he announced.

"I'll come with..." Matt started, but he cut his brother off immediately with an ice-cold glare.

"No you won't," TK ordered.

Matt looked like he was about to protest when Izzy spoke up, "TK's right, this would probably go faster if we split up."

Matt wanted to argue, but Sora said, "That's a good idea! Don't you think so Matt?"

Matt reluctantly nodded, and they all went off into separate directions and started scrubbing the floors.

Time went by, and it was finally dark outside. TK dipped his brush in the bucket of hot water and started scrubbing at the floor with the same rhythm he had since he had started. He noticed Tokomon attempting to wash the floor near him, and TK couldn't help but smile at his partner's attempts at cleaning. He felt bad for yelling at his partner earlier, so he spoke up, "I'm sorry Tokomon. It's just been a long day, and..."

He was going to explain to his partner how he had felt so different since the SkullGreymon incident, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to worry his digimon partner with his negative feelings he's been having. It would only worry the little digimon, and he didn't want to do that to his partner.

"It's ok TK," Tokomon responded, a smile on his face, "I know it's been a long day, and you've had the others practically breathing down your neck this whole time. But..."

Tokomon looked like he wanted to say something but had stopped himself.

"You're worried about me too, aren't you Tokomon?"

Tokomon nodded, apparently nervous about TK's reaction to this.

"Don't be mad at me TK," Tokomon explained, "It's just that you've been... uh..."

"Different," he supplied.

Tokomon gave a slight nod. "Are you really ok, TK?"

TK was annoyed at the question, but didn't lash out like he had with his brother. Tokomon really cared about him, and he cared about Tokomon too. Lashing out at his partner would only make things worse.

He thought long and hard about his answer, but he didn't know how to explain what was going on. He hadn't told anyone about the reaction he had when he touched Etemon's dark cable, not even Tokomon. He didn't want to tell anyone until he understood what was going on for himself.

"I don't know," TK finally responded, speaking his thoughts, "I just haven't felt the same, ever since the whole SkullGreymon thing."

"TK?" Tokomon asked, clearly hesitant in what he was about to say.

"It's ok Tokomon," he reassured, "What is it?"

"Do you remember our fight against... Devimon?"

Sadness rushed through his veins at the memory of that battle. He solemnly nodded.

"Do you remember when Ogremon had jumped out of Devimon's stomach towards me?"

TK hesitated. He did remember; after Ogremon had done that little stunt, TK had felt a pain in the back of his neck. He had almost forgotten about that.

"I wasn't sure at the time, but I thought I saw Ogremon throw something at you. I was too distracted to see what it was, but I did feel a lot of dark energy coming from whatever it was. I never saw anything hit you, and you haven't said anything about being hit... but..."

"Something did happen," he said, a hand instantly went to the back of his neck. "It felt like something went into my body through the back of my neck. It hurt, but I was too worried about you to pay too much attention to it. Then, when you... you know... I felt so bad. I felt so sad, angry, and... hopeless. I heard a voice inside my head telling me to give up hope and that I'd feel like this forever, but all I wanted was for you to come back. The voice tried to get me to stop, but I kept wishing for you to come back. It was then that your digi-egg appeared, and I haven't heard the voice since."

Tokomon stayed silent for a while, not taking his eyes off of his partner, before asking, "Well what do you think about it, TK?"

Anger boiled inside of him. "I don't know Tokomon! If I did we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

Tokomon flinched at being yelled at, and TK suddenly felt awful for lashing out on his partner again. That was twice now in one day that he had yelled at Tokomon. He didn't know what was going on, and that scared him.

"Tokomon, what's wrong with me?" he asked, barely whispering, as tears escaped his eyes and dropped to the floor.

The two of them were unaware of an eavesdropping Piximon that had been listening to their entire conversation, but Piximon made his presence known as he yelled out, "Dinner time!"

TK could hear the others getting closer with their digimon partners. TK quickly rubbed away the evidence of his tears and picked up Tokomon into his arms. Once everyone had arrived, Piximon dropped to the ground and marched off into one of the rooms.

As they followed Piximon, the evidence of food appeared in the form of an alluring aroma. He could tell Tokomon was very hungry as the digimon started getting antsy the closer they got to the food. Then they saw a table that was low to the ground but set for the six digidestineds, their digimon partners, and, of course, Piximon. Piximon didn't have to make an announcement for them to find a seat and start digging into their meals.

The others, well it was mostly Mimi, complained about how sore they were from all the stairs and then having to scrub the floors. A conversation started up, but TK remained quiet. He still was upset about yelling at his partner and his brother.

"Are you ok?" Matt whispered to him.

'No,' he thought to himself, but he couldn't worry his brother. Even when they had split up to scrub Piximon's floors, he could tell Matt was keeping an eye on him. He wanted Matt to back off, but realized that yelling at his brother again was probably not the best way of figuring things out.

"Yes," he lied, feigning a smile. "And I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. I've just been extra tired lately."

Luckily Matt seemed to buy it, as he nodded and said, "That's ok TK. Don't worry about it."

Good, maybe Matt would finally back off a little bit. Probably not, but at least Matt went back to eating. It was then that TK noticed Piximon staring at him. He wasn't sure how long the digimon had been doing so, but he ignored Piximon.

After they all had their fair share, Piximon ushered them into a room, which he said would be their bedroom.  
"But there's no beds!" Sora stated!

"We can't sleep on this hard floor!" Mimi agreed.

Piximon didn't pay them any attention as he left the room while turning the lights off. The others sighed and accepted the fact that they once again wouldn't be sleeping on a soft bed. Come to think of it, TK couldn't even remember the last time he had a good night's sleep in his own bed back home.

There were utterings of "good night's" and a collection of yawns as digimon and humans alike drifted off into sleep.

TK couldn't sleep, though. There were just too many things on his mind. Apparently Matt and Izzy felt the same way because the two of them left in the middle of night, once they thought everyone was asleep. TK thought about going with them, but he really just wanted to be alone, so he waited for them to leave before exiting the room as well. Matt and Izzy were nowhere to be seen, so it was safe to assume that they had left Piximon's house for some reason. TK walked around to the other side of Piximon's statue and plopped down to the ground, his feet hanging down.

He heard wings flutter and sighed. It figured someone had heard him try to leave. He turned to see who it was but was surprised to see it was just Piximon. The pink digimon took a seat next to TK and laid his spear down to his side.

"What are you doing up so late?" Piximon asked. "You should be exhausted after all of that hard work."

"Oh that, that was nothing," he snorted. It was true. He didn't feel fatigued at all from the work Piximon made them do, which seemed weird, but he didn't really care at the moment. There were other important manners on his mind.

"I've been watching you," Piximon announced. TK had realized this. Piximon nearly stared him down the entire dinner, and then had appeared from nowhere when he and Tokomon were talking.

"And...?"

"And I can tell that you are very troubled."

TK snorted. "Wow, how did you manage to gather that," he said sarcastically.

"You feel conflicted, don't you?"

TK looked down to the ground. For being a little digimon, Piximon sure was smart and able to read people.

"What does it matter to you?"

"You're one of the digidestined," Piximon stated simply, "I'm here to help you all."

TK doubted that this puffball could help him understand what was going on, but Piximon was indeed smarter then he looked. Maybe the digimon would be able to help him in some way.

"I..." he started, but he couldn't seem to find the words, "I don't know what's going on with me. I used to be so happy, or at least I think I used to be. I can't really remember much of what I was like before the SkullGreymon incident."

"How did that affect you?" Piximon asked, surprised. "I thought that only had to do with Tai and Agumon."

He wasn't sure how Piximon knew anything about what happened with SkullGreymon, but it didn't matter how the digimon knew. "I don't remember too much. I just know that my body reacted to the dark energy that was used to make Greymon digivolve. It was enough to make me pass out, and when I woke up I felt like I had become a new person. A much... sadder person."

Piximon hummed, clearly in deep thought. "Keep going," the digimon encouraged.

"Well, since then I've just felt... dark," he said, not being able to explain in words how he felt, "I'm just sad all the time. I doubt everything. I can't think positively. I even get angry at my friends and my digimon partner," TK explained, tears starting to form again in his eyes. "I just feel like a light switch that used to be on all the time had turned off, and I don't know what to do."

Tears continued falling to the floor as his head was down and he was overwhelmed by this sensation of sadness. His eyes were closed, and he barely noticed that a dark aura, similar to the one he had when he picked up Etemon's dark cable, surrounded him.

"TK!" Piximon exclaimed.

TK opened his eyes and realized his digivice was shaking. He took it from his pocket and realized that his digivice had become an even darker gray than it was before. What was going on? He didn't know what any of this meant, or how to fix it.

Eventually TK calmed down, and the dark aura and his shaking digivice stopped.

"I can tell there is a darkness inside of you," Piximon uttered, his cheerful deposition gone, "I can't tell you exactly what is going on because I do not know, but I do know that there has been darkness planted inside of you. I don't think it was your own darkness to start out with, but now it seems to becoming your own. Darkness is an overpowering force. It does not allow any room for light, and if the darkness inside takes control of you, there will be no light left. This is something you will have to fight TK, if you wish to help your friends, the Digital World, and Tokomon."

TK was troubled by Piximon's words. "Is there any way to remove this darkness inside of me?" he asked.

Piximon shook his head. "Not that I know of. You may be able to use the darkness to..." Piximon answered, but then stopped suddenly shaking his head.

"What?"

Piximon didn't respond.

"I can use the darkness inside..."

"No!" Piximon stated sharply. "It is too dangerous and risky; I never should have brought it up in the first place."

"But..."

"No, TK. You should never embrace the darkness inside of you. You must fight it if you want to protect your friends, your partner, and the fate of the two worlds. Fight the darkness inside of you TK, and don't ever give in to it."

TK was about to ask the digimon more questions, but Piximon picked up his spear and flew away. TK was left by himself, sitting in the night. He thought about his conversation with Piximon. Apparently there was a darkness inside of him and, by the sound of it, it was getting stronger and stronger each day. Piximon said he had to fight the darkness, but he also started to mention that he could use the darkness. Piximon seemed to be afraid of that idea, but the digimon had mentioned it anyway. The idea of using darkness was confusing to him; wasn't darkness purely evil? Like Devimon. Devimon was pure darkness, and he was only capable of evil. Could that same power be used for good? No, there was no way Devimon would ever be good. Especially not after what he did to Angemon. TK hated that there was this darkness inside of him, but he didn't know what he could do about it.

Thinking about all of this only gave him a headache.

"TK?" he heard a tired voice squeak.

He flinched in shock at the voice, but turned only to see that it was Tokomon.

"What are you doing out here TK?"

TK jumped to his feet and shook his head. "Nothing, just getting some fresh air."

"You look like you were thinking really hard about something."

"I was, but it's nothing that can't wait till morning. Come on, let's go back and get some shut eye."

Tokomon didn't protest as he allowed TK to scoop him up into his arms and walk back to where the others were. After about twenty steps Tokomon was snoring in his arms. TK smiled down to his partner. As long as he had Tokomon with him, he would be able to figure everything out.

Morning came and they all were awoken to the sound of Piximon banging his spear against one of the pails of water. It was then that the others realized that Matt and Izzy were missing. Piximon explained that they had wandered off in the middle of the night to go find their crests. Despite their complaining, Piximon ordered them to get back to training.

This time they were doing some type of yoga, but they had only just started when Piximon announced that the barrier was broken. They all ran outside to see the hole in the barrier and a big red dragon digimon shooting off fireballs into the jungle.

They all ran down the stairs and then through the jungle to find Matt and Izzy running towards them. Tentomon and Gabumon welcomed their partners, but they didn't have much time for their little reunion.

A shiver went down TK's spine and he realized that Etemon's Dark Network cables were flying into the air, producing a hologram of Etemon who stroked his guitar and zapped the digimon of their energy. The cables then shot towards Piximon, the only digimon with the energy to fight, but TK quickly maneuvered his way in front of the digimon. Things were moving too fast for him to think about what he was doing, but he realized that he was surrounded again by the same dark aura, but this time it formed into a type of shield, which protected him and Piximon. As the cables came into contact with the dark shield, the cables were zapped and then disintegrated. More cables flew at them, but the same result occurred. Once all of the cables were destroyed, the dark aura faded and he dropped to his knees, feeling completely zapped of his energy, just like the digimon.

"TK!" Tokomon exclaimed.

It was then that he noticed the red dinosaur digimon, Tyrannomon, had shot a fireball in his direction. Piximon, though, flew towards the attack and braced himself with his spear in both hands. Piximon was able to shield the attack, but he was unable to perform any attacks of his own because Tyrannomon kept shooting fireballs nonstop at Piximon.

The fireballs continued to ram into Piximon and TK wasn't sure how much longer the little digimon could withstand the attacks. Luckily Tai and Agumon returned, but Agumon had digivolved into Greymon. The two dinosaur digimon fought, and this time Greymon was able to move around much better than at the coliseum against the other Greymon. Greymon picked up Tyrannomon, who was surrounded by dark cables, and as Greymon lifted the digimon the cables started snapping. Greymon then let out a victorious roar as all the cables snapped and Tyrannomon was thrown to the ground and dissolved into pieces.

TK had to fend off a lot of "Are you ok?" questions, but he was too tired to grow annoyed. Eventually he was able to convince the others that he was all right, though the others still had unanswered questions like what had actually happened when TK shielded off the attack. Piximon explained that it had to do with the power of the digivice, but TK knew he was just telling the others that as a lie to get them to calm down. It was apparent that Piximon didn't want to tell the others about their discussion they had last night, and that was fine by TK.

After recuperating at Piximon's house, they decided it was time to leave. They said their goodbyes to Piximon and walked back out into the desert. TK stole another glance back at the pink digimon to see Piximon waving at him with a look of almost admiration in his eyes. TK still wasn't sure what all was going on with him, but he knew that Piximon was right. This was something he would have to fight and figure out on his own.

* * *

"Ah, Piximon. Good to see you my friend!"

"Gennai," Piximon nodded, greeting the man. Piximon had decided it would probably be best to contact Gennai about the digidestineds since they had just left.

"What do you think of the digidestineds? Do they have it in them to save the Digital World?"

He nodded. "They may be silly kids and have a long ways to go, but I think that they will be fine. Our world is safe in their hands, but..."

"What is it Piximon?" Gennai asked, catching onto Piximon's uncertainty.

"It has to do with the smallest of the digidestineds."

"TK? The bearer of hope? What is the matter?"

Piximon thought about how to go about explaining this. "It's... I'm afraid that the dark forces threatening our world have attacked the boy."

"Yes, I'm aware of the Devimon incident and what happened to Angemon."

"That's not what I mean," Piximon quickly responded. "There's some dark force inside of the boy."

"What do you mean by this, Piximon?"

"I'm not sure what exactly, but I can tell that there has been some type of darkness planted inside of him."

"What? How could that be?"

"I overheard the boy talking to his digimon partner about the battle with Devimon. "Apparently the boy was struck in the back of the neck by something during that fight, and then the dark digivolution of SkullGreymon was somehow able to activate the darkness inside of the boy."

Piximon could tell Gennai was deep in thought. "Do you know what it could be?"

Gennai shook his head. "Even I do not know all of the plans of the evil forces threatening our world. But I do know that the bearers of hope and light possess the strongest threat against these dark forces. It could be that they are trying to use TK's power against us and use it for the sake of darkness."

"What are we supposed to do to help the boy?" Piximon asked.

"Nothing for the moment. I will keep an eye on the boy, thanks for the information Piximon."

"There's one more thing," Piximon added before the hologram of Gennai disappeared.

"What is it Piximon?"

"I think the boy may be able to use the darkness inside of him to become even stronger. In our battle today, he was able to protect from being entrapped in Etemon's Dark Network."

"No!" Gennai shouted. Piximon was taken aback, but Gennai continued, "We must not allow the bearer of hope to utilize the powers of darkness. It is too dangerous."

"I thought so too, but..." Piximon tried to explain, but was cut off.

"No Piximon. The powers of darkness can only be used for evil. We will not allow the digidestineds, especially the bearer of hope, to play around with such power. It could ruin any chance we have of saving our world."

"If you say so Gennai."

"Good. Now, I will keep an eye on the boy for now. Thanks for your call Piximon."

"Yes Gennai."

Gennai's hologram disappeared, leaving a troubled Piximon by his own. He could only worry for the youngest digidestined. He had sensed that the darkness inside had a strong grip on him, and the boy was not going to be able to simply get rid of the darkness like Gennai wanted. He thought TK could be able to use the powers of darkness for good, especially after how TK had protected him earlier, but Gennai was clearly opposed to the idea. Maybe Gennai was right. Either way, he too would keep a close eye on the bearer of hope.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

* * *

Chapter 4:

It was another hot day in the desert. TK wondered if they would ever find their way out of this wasteland. The group was energetic, though, after recuperating at Piximon's place. They had also found more of Etemon's dark cables that led to some type of power box. He thought that with all of the cables surrounding them he would feel that same power sensation that went through him before, but that was not the case this time. Maybe the cables were broken or something?

TK's mind started to remember what had happened at Piximon's place. Things were a bit fuzzy for some reason, but he remembered running out in front of Piximon when Etemon's dark cables were launched at him. He didn't remember why he had done that; it was almost like an automatic reflex. Then the cables had been destroyed, and he had dropped to his knees from lack of energy. That was all that he had remembered. Apparently Tai had seen what happened because he told TK that whatever he did was really cool. Izzy asked him a bunch of questions, trying to solve the puzzle like he always did. Matt and Sora had yelled at him for being reckless and putting himself in danger. Joe and Mimi were indifferent about the whole thing, almost scared. They had muttered that it was scary because of this dark aura that apparently surrounded him. Luckily they talked to Piximon after what had happened and the little digimon had said it had to do with the power of the digivices. Izzy asked Piximon a multitude of questions, but Piximon said that he couldn't answer all of them. Piximon was lying to his friends, or at least TK thought so. TK was certain that it had to do something with "using the darkness," like Piximon had mentioned, but he still didn't understand any of it. He looked down in the sand in frustration.

"What is it Izzy; some kind of power generator?" Tai asked.

"Even better. Etemon has hardwired the entire desert creating an extensive computer network. My guess is this is one of the remote data access terminals."

"Great, let's crash it!"

Sora was cautious, though. "It could be a booby trap."

"If it is Etemon's, I say we cross the wires and mess it up good," Matt announced.

Izzy didn't pay any attention to any of them, though, as he was messing with the cables.

"What are you going to do with that?" Tentomon asked.

"I wonder," Izzy said distantly, "It is entirely possible that our computers have compatible systems. And if they do, I can tap into Etemon's network!"

TK was intrigued by what Izzy was doing with Etemon's cable, so he moved closer to the boy. He was watching the screen when he saw a red box with the word "Mail" appear.

"Hey, you've got mail."

The e-mail was actually an audio SOS message from someone, or more likely some _mon_ , who apparently was being held captive by Etemon. He could tell by the voice that, whoever this was, was not being one-hundred percent honest with them; the mechanical-sounding voice obviously had some second agenda. The others were trying to figure out the same thing; was this voice believable or not?

In the end, Tai had convinced everyone to agree with him to go help whomever it was asking for help. Well, by "everyone" he meant everyone except for TK and Joe. Joe was honestly just being a scaredy-cat about the whole situation, just like he was with mostly everything. And TK wasn't convinced either, but it wasn't like anyone was going to listen to him. He had noticed that the others never really asked for his opinion on anything and never actually listened to him when he talked unless it benefited them. Like when they were debating on whether or not to come to Server; TK spoke up that they should go, but the only reason anybody paid any attention to him was because he was supporting Tai and Tai had used his comment to get his point across to the others. TK didn't really feel like he was part of a group; he was more or less there for the ride.

The only time anyone seemed to give him any attention was when he was in trouble. Matt was always by his side, but that was because his older brother was constantly worried that something was going to happen to him. It got even worse since he had passed out at the coliseum. It was the same with the others; TK felt like everyone thought of him as a fragile little boy with one of the weakest digimon partners.

That was one of the things that made TK really mad. When they were back on File Island, they never allowed him to fight any of their battles. The only reason Patamon digivolved in the first place was because everyone else had been defeated. TK didn't care too much about how the others treated him, but he sure as heck wanted the others to treat Tokomon with some respect, especially after the digimon had saved all of their butts against Devimon.

"TK?"

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and looked down to his digimon partner that was in his arms.

"What is it Tokomon?"

"You just looked like you were getting really angry about something. Your face is all red and..."

"I'm fine Tokomon," TK replied sharply. He instantly flinched at the harshness in his voice. What was wrong with him? He was always angry or sad all of the time now. He always was thinking about negative things. Was he... broken, for lack of better term?

"I'm sorry Tokomon," he replied, disappointed in himself for once again letting his emotions hinder his relationship with Tokomon.

Tokomon smiled back at him to show there was no harm done, but TK wondered if the little digimon was realizing how much he was changing and how much he was in a bad mood recently. The little digimon surely had, especially since they were partners and were supposed to be the best of friends. Tokomon hadn't said anything about the way he had been acting, but he wondered if the digimon thought about leaving him because of how mean he was. Again with the negative thoughts. He bit his lip in frustration.

"According to my laptop," Izzy announced, "we should be getting close."

Once Izzy finished, TK felt a warmth on his chest. He looked down to see that his stomach was glowing a yellow light. No, it was just his tag. He pulled out the tag from underneath his shirt and looked at it confusingly.

"Hey, look."

"It's glowing," Matt said, stating the obvious.

Tokomon then jumped out of his arms and started running.

"TK, come over here! Look what I found!"

TK looked over to where his partner had ran and saw a big rock with a symbol etched on it behind his partner. The symbol looked like a mountain with a sun on the top. He didn't know why, but a feeling of unease settled in him.

"Look! Another crest!" Sora exclaimed.

He didn't want to go near the crest, but Matt had already grabbed his arm and started pulling him along. The closer they got to the crest, the more shaken up he felt.

Finally he was a couple feet away from the crest.

"Hold your tag up, TK," Tai encouraged.

TK reluctantly obliged, and the crest started shining a bright yellow in response as they were now only a couple of feet away from the etched stone. Everyone had to cover their eyes from the glow of the crest. When the light dimmed, the stone had shrunk to the size of the others' crests. The small rectangle then floated towards him, but it stopped about an arms reach away from the tag. TK felt a burning sensation rush through his entire body and he had to close his eyes shut from the pain. A couple of seconds passed by before the pain stopped, but those seconds felt like hours. He opened his eyes and brought his tag up to his eyes. The crest was a darkish-gray color, similar to the color his digivice currently was. The symbol that was on the stone was not apparent on his crest; instead, his crest bore a symbol that looked like a cross with a loop at the top. Now that the pain was gone, TK felt a rush of energy rejuvenate his body, and it felt like that energy was originating from the crest.

"Uh... that was interesting," Mimi noted.

"Awesome, my own crest!" he said excitedly. He had no idea that getting his crest would feel so great.

He looked around at the others to see that they all had a concerned look on their faces, but Izzy spoke up, brining all of their attention off of TK "Sora's crest is the only one left to find. Maybe if we rescue this guy, he can lead us to it."

"Well, what are we waiting for!?" Tai cheered, clearly over whatever had happened with TK's crest.

It was then that Mimi gasped. "What is that?"

A cave had taken the place the previous crest had been. It looked like there was some kind of writing on the wall, so they all walked into the cave. Izzy started geeking out about the writing on the wall and went into this long explanation of what the Digital World was and so on. TK didn't really pay any attention; he was too busy admiring his crest.

His negative feelings seemed to have intensified since he obtained his crest, but he wasn't so much bothered by his feelings as he felt empowered by them. It felt as if he could do anything he wanted. The feeling of power intensified until he heard his digimon partner speak up.

"What are you thinking about TK?" Tokomon asked.

The energy rush stopped as he turned his focus to his partner.

"Nothing Tokomon."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. It was then that a door opened up and he started paying attention to the others. Izzy had apparently found a way to transport them to the location of the trap they were heading into. They all peered out of the door to see that they were still in a desert, but off in the distance was an upside-down Egyptian pyramid. Tai announced that Etemon was there. It was then that they, well, everyone except TK, started coming up with a plan. After some discussion, it was decided that Sora, Tai, Matt, Izzy, and Joe would go into the pyramid to go find the person or digimon that was asking for their help; Matt, himself, and Mimi would stay at the sphinx they were taking cover in and come help if the others needed it. TK wasn't surprised by their plan. Of course Matt would do whatever TK was doing, and of course they'd leave him behind to "keep him safe" from any "trouble" they might get into. By "trouble," he knew they meant battling. He couldn't help but be angry at the others for their lack of involving him and underestimating his and Tokomon's abilities. He didn't know why this bothered him so much. The others had done the same thing on File Island, but TK couldn't remember if he had felt so upset about it back then as he did now. It probably didn't bother him back then, but he wasn't the same, or at least he didn't feel the same. He put his hands up to his head in confusion and decided to stop thinking about all of this confusing stuff.

For the rest of the day, Izzy sat in the cave with the weird writing on the walls typing away on his computer and everyone else sat around trying to perfect their plan for the next day. TK didn't feel like talking about the plan he wasn't involved in, so he decided to sit in the cave with Tokomon.

He didn't know how much time had gone by, but Izzy finally spoke up.

"Hey... uh... TK?" Izzy stuttered.

He looked up at the red-haired boy curiously. He never really had talked to Izzy one-on-one before, or at least he didn't think he had. He replied, "What is it Izzy?"

"Are... are you ok?"

TK normally would get upset by this question, especially since he had heard it at least a hundred times since they had arrived to Server, but instead he was intrigued. He could tell Izzy was trying to be a caring friend, but apparently the computer geek wasn't comfortable in normal, friendly conversations.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"I... I just have noticed certain things since the incident at... at the coliseum."

"What kind of things?"

"Well, I remember on Kokatorimon's cruise ship, you seemed to disappear from the buffet room without me, Tentomon, Matt, Gabumon, or Tokomon noticing."

"So?" he asked, not quite interested in what the boy was getting at.

"That's not the only thing, I've noticed. At Piximon's place when we were battling Tyrannomon and you saved Piximon from Etemon's cables, I caught a glimpse of your digivice, and it was a different color than mine and the others. It was darker."

"Izzy..."  
"And then that incident with your crest. You were engulfed in a black aura, and..."

"Izzy, what are you trying to get at?" he asked, not hiding the annoyance from his voice.

"That's another thing. Ever since we got to Server, your personality seemed to have turned a complete 180 for the worst. You fire snappy comments to your friends, your brother, and Tokomon."

Izzy wasn't trying to scold TK for his actions; the boy was simply just stating facts. He hadn't realized that Izzy had paid so much attention to him, but he should've expected that from the smartest member of their group. Still, there was a rage boiling up inside of him. Whatever he was going through had nothing to do with Izzy; it was none of his business.

"Just spit out whatever it is you have to say."

He noticed his partner wince from his sharp tone, but he didn't care. Izzy was shocked by how harsh TK was getting, and the computer geek didn't know what to do.

"I... I just..."

"What's going on over here?"

TK rolled his eyes. Great, of course he would be here.

"Well?" Matt asked.

"Nothing," TK muttered under his breath and stood up. He then quickly paced away away from Izzy, his brother, and the others, who had followed Matt over to where he and Izzy were conversing.

"TK," Matt yelled. He could hear Matt's footsteps come closer, and his anger shot through the roof.

As soon as Matt put his hand on TK's shoulder, TK quickly turned and grabbed Matt's arm. He twisted his brother's arm and Matt whined from the pain. He gave his brother a death glare and saw fear in his brother's eyes.

It was then that TK realized what he was doing, and he instantly let go of his brother's arm. He looked down to the ground, tears starting to form in his eyes in response to the intense shame and anger he had from his actions.

"I... I'm..." he tried, but the words couldn't leave his mouth. He then turned and ran off into the desert, not watching nor caring where he was heading. After a while he stopped and dropped to his knees. What was going on with him?

* * *

The boy was falling apart. Takeru Takaishi, eight-year old human child and supposed bearer of everything he hated, was now falling deeper and deeper into darkness. He hadn't expected the child to fall apart so quickly, but apparently that crest he had obtained had some effect on the darkness.

The other aspects of his plan were going according to plan as well. Devimon was gone and Etemon had laid out his Dark Network all over the deserts of Server. Soon that buffoon of a digimon would be destroyed, but Myotismon was already working on the gate to the Human World. Once Myotismon and the digidestineds were back in that other world, the Dark Masters would begin their takeover of the Digital World. The digidestineds would surely come back to the Digital World if they defeated Myotismom, but the warp in the dimensions would give the Dark Masters plenty of time to prepare their traps.

Everything looked like it favored Apocalymon's plan of engulfing all of the worlds into eternal darkness, but he couldn't be satisfied; satisfaction and pleasure were not feelings he was capable of having. The only thing he could feel was an intensifying anger and sadness that worsened with each passing day. At least the bearer of hope was now starting to experience the darkness he had to feel for eternity, and it would only worsen for the human child.

The orb he had planted, though, was experiencing some side effects. The boy's digivice and, now, his crest were being corrupted with the boy's darkness as well. This was allowing the boy to experience powerful sensations and be allowed to utilize the darkness for positive means. Darkness, as he knows, is a very powerful, deadly force. It is a force that can never be destroyed, and it is the only one equal in power to the light. But darkness is an overwhelming force. It takes a strong being to be able to control and utilize the powers of darkness for their will. The boy appeared to have the potential to utilize these powers, but the darkness inside of him would only get stronger over time and even harder to control. The boy was already falling apart. Takeru Takaishi will soon be overwhelmed by the darkness inside, and then hope will be lost for good.

* * *

"Now try not to do anything stupid."

It was now time for them to go rescue Sora. The previous day, Tai, Izzy, Joe, and Sora went into the pyramid to find that the digimon asking for help was Datamon, a digimon who had been defeated and imprisoned by Etemon to run his Dark Network. Datamon, though, had recovered himself over time and needed their help to finally be free. But the digimon had his own agenda, as he thought, and took Sora with him. He, Matt, and Mimi had to go rescue everybody from Etemon and bring them back to the pyramid. Izzy had found out that Datamon had kept Sora in the pyramid, and now Tai and Izzy were going to go save her. But in order for them to do so, TK, Matt, Mimi, and Joe had to serve as decoys to distract Etemon and his guards. And now it was time for their plan to begin.

He still felt upset and uneasy about two nights ago when he attacked his brother, but things had gotten a little better since then. He thought back on the conversation he had with his brother when Tai, Sora, Joe, and Izzy were infiltrating the pyramid.

* * *

 _"TK, you have to say something."_

 _He didn't feel like talking to his brother; he didn't feel like talking to Tokomon; he didn't feel like talking to anyone. He had attacked Izzy verbally and Matt physically the previous night. Luckily everyone left him alone the rest of that night after he returned from running off, but he could tell everyone was scared of and worried about him. Matt was the worst, of course, and he could only imagine how confused his brother must feel. Once the others had left to go into the pyramid, Matt had announced that two of them needed to talk, and Mimi had made some joke about brotherly love, to which he and Matt shot glares at Mimi. Now he was sitting in the cave with just his brother._

 _"I don't know what you want me to talk about Matt," he said. He knew Matt wanted to talk about his behavior from last night, but he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to tell the others, not even Tokomon, what he was experiencing. In all honesty, he was embarrassed by how sad and angry he felt and the way he acted because of those feelings. He didn't know what was going on with him, so what was the point of talking about it with other people? It's not like they'd have any type of answer for him._

 _"TK, just tell me what's bothering you. I want to help you, but I don't know what to do if you don't tell me what's wrong."_

 _He stayed silent. Matt looked at him expecting a response, but TK just stared at his shoes, not daring to make eye contact with his brother. Finally, Matt sighed._

 _"Listen, TK," Matt said quietly, "I know I haven't always been there for you. When mom and dad separated, I..." Matt stopped. He heard his brother sniffle and then continue. "I was so mad when they got their divorce. I know you were too little to remember, but..."_

 _He interrupted his brother, as a feeling of sadness rushed through his body. "I remember the fights, Matt."_

 _Matt looked at him with his mouth agape, but then nodded. "Well, mom and dad told me that we weren't going to be living together anymore, and I just got so mad. I hated mom for leaving me and dad, and I was so mad that I shut everyone out. What I didn't realize, though, is that I shut you out as well. The only times I ever saw you were when you came over to stay with dad, which wasn't very frequent, as I'm sure you remember. I never wanted to go see mom, but that meant I never got to see you. I know I messed up... and I want to try to make up for it. That's why I've been so protective of you since we got here; I want to make up for the lost time of not being there for you. I want to fix the mistake I made."_

 _He noticed his brother wipe away tears from his eyes. It took all the strength he had to hold his own tears in. "Matt, you can't fix what's already happened; you can't make-up for all of that lost time. There's no way that will ever happen."_

 _He saw more tears fall from his brother's eyes, so he continued, "But you don't have to. What happened in the past is done and there's no changing that, but what's going to happen in the future is not done. You can't change who you were before, but you can change who you are now."_

 _Matt looked over at him and smiled. "How did you become so smart?"_

 _He shrugged his shoulders and continued looking at his shoes. He realized Matt was trying to apologize for not being there for him since their mom and dad divorced, but this whole situation was messy. Ever since that SkullGreymon incident, he had experienced thoughts and feelings he never knew he had about his parent's divorce. All of the hurt, all of the pain, all of the fighting, he started to remember. He remembered all the nights he cried to his mom asking where Matt was, and she would just get frustrated and yell at him, and then she'd start crying and..._

 _Now tears were falling from his eyes. He instantly felt an arm wrap around his shoulder and pull him in closer for a side-hug. He allowed the tears to fall from his eyes and welcomed his brother's embrace._

 _After minutes of continuous crying, which felt more like hours, he finally spoke up, "Matt... I... I love you."_

 _"I love you two, brother."_

* * *

They made their way closer to the pyramid and hid behind a sand dune. Joe had Ikkakumon digivolve and start sending out "Harpoon Torpedoes," at the pyramid. Guard digimon started running their way, and Garurumon added to the assault as well. Joe, Ikkakumon, Matt, and Garurumon were attracting the digimon away from the pyramid, just like they were supposed to. Tai and Izzy wasted no time as they ran off to the unguarded pyramid. He and Mimi then saw Etemon start following Joe and Matt.

"Joe and Matt need out help, please Palmon, you got to digivolve right away."

"Right!" Palmon obeyed Mimi's orders and Togemon picked up Mimi.

"Now remember TK, don't move."

He waited until Mimi and Togemon were running off before he gathered the mat they had been using as camouflage and picked up Tokomon.

"TK? What are you doing?" Tokomon asked.

"There's no way I'm just going to sit here on my butt while everyone is risking their lives. We've got to go help them!"

"Right!" Tokomon cheerfully replied.

He then ran as fast as he could towards the ensuing battle between Ikkakumon, Garurumon, Togemon, and the guard digimon, which consisted of Tyrannomon, Monochromon, and Gazimon. Etemon wasn't far behind.

He then watched as Etemon used his Dark Network attack on Ikkakumon. Luckily Ikkakumon was quick enough to run away, so the attack hit the guard digimon instead. Etemon didn't seem to be bothered by this, which enraged TK. Etemon was willing to risk the safety of his minions in order to attack the others.

TK continued running as he saw that Ikkakumon, Togemon, and Garurumon were in a standoff against Etemon. Garurumon charged, but Etemon simply tossed him to the side. Ikkakumon then tried to jump on Etemon, but the monkey caught him, tossed him up in the air, and threw him over by Garurumon. Togemon launched a Needle Spray, but Etemon caught all the needles and threw them back at Togemon. Etemon then started singing his Concert Crush, and the digimon dedigivolved to their rookie forms.

By now he had made his way behind the nearest dune. He was ready to charge into battle, but a Gazimon's voice could be heard informing Etemon that Tai and Izzy were in the pyramid. TK noticed that Etemon was turned towards the pyramid and used this time to flag down his brother, Mimi, and Joe. They quickly noticed him and ran over behind the dune. TK threw the mat overtop of them.

"Huh? Now where did all of those others go? What's a legend gotta do to keep an audience around here, baby? Well, it doesn't matter; I'll just destroy the ones in the pyramid first, and then I'll come back for the rest of them later."

He peaked through the mat to see Etemon riding his Monochromon train thing back to the pyramid.

"He's got a lot of anger," Matt noted.

"And he sure gets mad easily!" he replied, playing along with the playful banter. If there's one thing he learned, it was that if he wanted the others to stop bothering him, he had to make sure he didn't let them see that something was wrong with him. Even if this meant acting like a stupid little cheerful kid, he would go along with it.

They then realized that Tai, Izzy, and Sora were still in danger, so they ran as fast as they could towards the pyramid. As they got closer, they saw Greymon, Birdramon, and Kabuterimon had busted through the pyramid and had Tai, Izzy, and Sora.

They didn't have time for a reunion, though, because they needed to get out of there before Etemon or Datamon showed up. As he was riding Birdramon, a chill ran through TK's spine. He looked back to see dark beams of energy shot through the pyramid and cause an explosion. Birdramon landed on the ground and they all stood and watched the spectacle that was taking place. The dark energy made the pyramid collapse, and out of the rubble appeared Etemon all coiled up in his Dark Network. All of that dark energy made TK fall to the ground in pain.

The others' digimon attacked, but there was no effect. Etemon through a dark energy ball their way which hit a mountain nearby. Etemon threw another which hit the sphinx. Both places of impact started spiraling together into some sort of distortion. TK's pain intensified.

Sora and Joe started uttering comments about giving up, but Tai took charge and decided he was still going to fight. Tai and Greymon ran towards Etemon and TK tried to yell out to them to be careful, but the pain was too much.

He tried to watch the ongoing battle and noticed that Greymon had managed to digivolve and send two giant missiles at Etemon. He watched as the missiles hit their target and Etemon started to spiral as well, but the pain was too much for him to handle. He dropped to his stomach and everything went black.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

* * *

Chapter 5:

It was nighttime and TK once again found himself camping out in a desert. They had been looking for Tai and Agumon ever since they had disappeared against the battle with Etemon. No one had kept track of the exact amount of time had passed since then, but it had to have been a couple of months. Everyone was growing frustrated, tired, and, as Mimi said, "depressed." TK had noticed that the negative feelings the others were feeling were affecting him in certain ways. His negative feelings of anger, sadness, and despair grew worse by the day, but at a much faster rate than the others. His temper was dangerously short, and it physically drained him not to scream at his friends for even doing stupid things, like Mimi and her constant complaining. At the same time of his decreasing mood, his energy levels felt like they were increasing. He knew it had something to do with his crest, as it would glow very dimly, but he never brought this up to the others.

He heard someone walking through the sand and he opened his eyes to see Sora was walking away from the camp. He watched Sora and Biyomon walk away from the others and then head over towards where he was lying, a little bit away from the others. He feigned sleep as Sora got nearer.

"Won't TK be upset?" Biyomon asked.

"Maybe, but he'll be safer here."

He then heard his partner roll over.

"Shh! We're going off to find Tai on our own. Don't wake anyone."

"We'll see you later Tokomon."

His partner yawned an "Ok" and went back to sleep. When he was sure Tokomon was back asleep and Sora and Biyomon were walking away, he sat up and watched Sora and Biyomon head off in a random direction.

So Sora was the first one to leave the group. He had known for a while that the group wasn't going to stay together for very much longer. They all were disturbed by Tai's disappearance, most of them realizing that the potential Tai was dead became greater with each day they didn't find him. TK could feel how uneasy everyone had become, and with Tai not being there, everyone was drifting apart. Now Sora had left, apparently going to find Tai on her own, but TK couldn't help but feel Sora was leaving to find herself. Once everyone woke up and realized Sora was gone, they probably would decide to go looking for her, since they knew that Sora was at least alive. But with Sora gone, TK felt like a chain reaction had begun. As he lied back down to go to sleep, he wondered whom the next one to run off would be.

* * *

That night had been at least a week or two ago, and he had been right. Since then, Izzy and Tentomon, Joe and Gomamon, Mimi and Palmon, and even Matt and Gabumon had all gone off in their own directions to try to find Sora, or Tai, or Gennai, in Izzy's case. Or at least that's what each of them rationalized; TK wasn't sure how, but he could feel that each one of his friends felt like they were lost and needed to go off on their own to find themselves.

It had been two days since Matt had left him in the amusement park. Matt had said he would be back in a couple hours, but when he did not return, TK knew that Matt had run off on his own as well.

Now that he was by himself, all of the negative feelings he had felt from the others were gone, and his crest had stopped glowing. Along with that, his energy levels were know down in the dumps. It was as if the others' dark feelings had empowered him in some way, but now with everyone gone he felt weak.

Being alone had given him the time to give up on his facade. Ever since the night at the sphinx where he had physically harmed Matt, he had decided that he would not let his negative feelings show to the others. Because of this, he tried to act like the carefree, joyful little kid that he vaguely remembered being back on File Island and even before they had come to the Digital World. It was exhausting trying to keep up this act and not go off at the others, but he had been able to do it. He even had been able to convince Matt that Matt could go off on his own and that TK would be ok. Now that he was alone, his walls came down and he felt like he could act naturally.

"He'll come back TK," Tokomon said, trying to reassure his human partner.

TK simply laughed. "Do you really think that Tokomon?" he asked sarcastically. He laughed again.

"Of course I do!" Tokomon replied, "Don't you?"

He laughed again. "Tokomon, everyone else left on their own and never came back. If Matt wanted to come back, he would have done so by now. He clearly didn't want to be around me anymore, just like the others."

"That's not true TK!"

He ignored his partner. The whole idea of it made him sad, especially since he knew it was true, but he also felt anger towards Matt and the others. But they had made their own decisions, and now TK had made his own.

"We don't need them anyway, Tokomon," he uttered.

Tokomon looked up at him with a worried look on his face. "You don't mean that, do you TK?"

It was now that TK looked at Tokomon, giving his partner a warning glare. "Do you not think that we can take care of ourselves?"

"No, it's not that... it's just..."

"Just what?"

"Don't you miss your friends? Don't you at least miss Matt?"

TK thought about this question. If he was being completely honest, "No, I don't miss them."

Tokomon had his mouth open in shock. "Why... why not?"

Thinking about his supposed "friends" and "brother" made him angry. Now that he wasn't with the others, he didn't have to hold back. "Because they suck. They treat me like I'm a pathetic, useless kid. They act like we have nothing to bring to the table, and that we need to be protected. When I'm around them, I feel... weak. I feel like they restrain me from becoming what I could."

"But TK, Matt and the others _love_..."

"Don't you dare use that word, Tokomon."

He felt his face grow warm with anger. "But..."

"My parents once said they 'loved' each other, and now they hate each other's guts. You say my brother 'loves' me when he was never there for me growing up because he didn't want anything to do with my mother, whom he 'loved' at one point too. And now you say my supposed friends 'love' me when all they used to do was act like I was a fragile little boy and then leave me alone in some stupid amusement park. Love brings about destruction, Tokomon. I don't want anything to do with such a useless concept."

Tokomon was silent for a little bit, but finally spoke up. "Does that mean you don't love me, TK?"

TK was shocked by the question. Of course he loved Tokomon; Tokomon was his best friend. His feelings for Tokomon were the only thing that had stayed constant throughout his time in the Digital World. He instantly felt his feelings of anger dissipate to sadness as he dropped to his knees.

"Of... of course I love you... Tokomon" he said before a stream of tears started rushing out of his eyes. He put his hands over his face in shame of yelling at his partner.

Suddenly, a familiar chill ran down his spine as he heard a voice say, "Hey, what's all the squawking about? DemiDevimon's the name, mind if I drop in?"

"DemiDevimon?" Tokomon muttered in confusion, "I've heard about you."

"Oh great, I'm flattered!"

"Don't be. Nothing I heard was good."

DemiDevimon then explained that he was only bad because he was working for Etemon, but supposedly now that Etemon was gone the digimon had turned good. TK knew it was all a load of crap, but he was intrigued by the digimon. This digimon was clearly evil, but the digimon did not appear to be strong enough to cause any real harm. TK had the feeling that DemiDevimon was still a minion of some digimon, but he had no idea who this digimon could be.

"So what's got you down squirt? I'm here to be your friend; I'll help you in whatever way possible."

"Really, you will?" he asked, trying to act intrigued.

"TK, this digimon is lying! He's bad news!"

"What do you mean butterball? Just because I'm not cute and pink like you doesn't mean I'm a bad guy. That's prejudice right there!"

"Don't talk to Tokomon like that," TK warned, shooting the digimon a death glare. DemiDevimon was taken aback by the look. He just picked up Tokomon into his arms and smiled at the digimon, but there was no politeness in his smile.

"Since you're offering, I do need help."

"Go on little guy; just state your problem and I'll fix it. It's the least I could do since you defeated Etemon."

"Well, you see, I think your working for some evil digimon and I want you to tell me everything about this digimon."

DemiDevimon and Tokomon were both shocked by his statement.

"Hey, I told you I worked for Etemon, but he's gone now. I'm a good guy now, I swear! Cross my heart and hope to die!"

"You see, I just don't think you're telling the truth. Either way, I'm not afraid of whoever it is if this digimon's henchmen are as pathetic as you."

Tokomon gasped and DemiDevimon's face twisted in anger.

"Don't talk about Lord Myotismon that way!"

"I didn't think you'd break that easily," he said, laughing, "You really are pathetic, aren't you DemiDevimon?"

"Why you little...!"

DemiDevimon then tucked in his right wing and dove down towards TK, but TK saw this coming and sidestepped the tackle. DemiDevimon, having to shoot through the air at a steep level due to TK's shortness, did not have enough time to recover from his missed tackle and hit the ground hard. DemiDevimon quickly flew back up in the air and glared at TK.

"Tut tut. Violence isn't the answer DemiDevimon."

"Argh, you'll pay for that! Demi Dart!"

A dart with a sharp needle at the end materialized by DemiDevimon's feet. The digimon grabbed the needle with its clawed foot and thrust it right at TK.

"TK!" Tokomon yelled, jumping out of TK's arms and into the trajectory of the dart. The needle penetrated Tokomon's body and the little digimon cried out in pain and hit the ground hard.

"Tokomon!"

"Haha! I'm not so pathetic now, you stupid brat!"

He dropped to his knees beside his partner. He yanked the dart out of Tokomon's body, but Tokomon's body kept shivering in pain. Why had he been so stupid? Why had he pushed this digimon when there was no way Tokomon could protect him? No, TK wanted to be stronger so that _he_ could protect _Tokomon_ , but once again he had failed. He was so disappointed in himself, but a hot, boiling anger also bubbled inside of him towards DemiDevimon.

"You... are... going... to... pay!" he whispered, his body literally shaking in anger. It was then that he noticed his glowing crest and vibrating digivice. He pulled both devices out and saw that they both were now no longer gray, but a black as dark as the sky in the middle of the night. He knew what he had to do now.

"Tokomon... Digivolve!"

His partner started glowing black, just like his crest and digivice. He watched as his partner started changing forms, as part of the digivolution process.

"Tokomon digivolve to... Tsukaimon!"

The glowing stopped, revealing a digimon that resembled Patamon physically in every way, save for the digimon's fur color. Instead of a bright orange, the digimon's fur was a dark purple color.

DemiDevimon just watched, confusion in the digimon's face.  
"I thought you held the crest of hope. But... this..."

TK didn't care what the digimon had to say at this point, not after attacking his partner. His anger was apparent in his voice as he ordered Tsukaimon, "Go get him!"

"Evil Spell!"

Tsukaimon flapped its wings and a purple fog surrounded DemiDevimon who started crying out in pain.

"Ah! Please! Make it stop!" DemiDevimon pleaded, obviously in very bad pain by his tone of voice.

"TK?"

A familiar voice was heard from off to the side of the battle. He turned to see that it was indeed Tai and Agumon who were standing there. His focus broke and Tsukaimon stopped his attack.

"Tai?"

"Hey little guy! I'm glad we found you!"

Tai ran over to him and gave him a hug before pulling away and looking over at Tsukaimon.

"Who's that digimon? He sure looks a lot like Patamon. And where's Tokomon?"

"That digimon is Tokomon, Tai," he tried to explain.

"But..." Agumon started, clearly confused, "Tsukaimon are nasty digimon that just want to fight all the time. And they don't digivolve from Tokomon; they digivolve from Pagumon."

"Is that true, Agumon?" Tai asked, also confused.

"Yeah!"

"And who were you fighting anyways?" Tai asked.

DemiDevimon! He had completely forgotten about that pathetic excuse for a digimon because of Tai's surprise appearance. He looked around, but DemiDevimon was nowhere in sight.

"He's gone," he muttered, disappointed.

"Who's gone, TK?"

He didn't pay Tai any attention because now Tsukaimon was flying eye level right in front of him. He wasn't sure what to make of what had just happened, his mind was still reeling too fast.

"Are... are you Tokomon?"

Tsukaimon nodded.

"Tokomon must have dark digivolved, like I did into SkullGreymon," Agumon said.

TK was worried about that. The last time that had happened, Agumon had been in a lot of pain because of the digivolution. He would feel terrible if he had put his partner through the same thing.

"Are you ok?" he asked his partner.

Again, Tsukaimon nodded.

"Well, he isn't rampaging like you did, so maybe this is just a new digivolution for Tokomon?" Tai suggested, though clearly having no idea of what was going on.

"I don't know Tai," Agumon stated, "Tsukaimon are evil digimon. They..."

"Tsukaimon is not evil!" TK snapped as he grabbed his partner and placed the digimon on top of his head. It was the spot Patamon enjoyed the most, so he thought Tsukaimon might enjoy it too.

"TK, calm down! No one's saying your partner is evil."

He gave a slight "Hmph" before saying, "I'm just surprised you're not dead."

Tai was confused by this and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well you were gone for like multiple months, we spent a long time looking for you."

"Months?" Tai asked, astounded, "And where are the others?"

"Everyone separated while we were looking for you."

"You see Tai? We go away for a couple of days and everything falls apart," Agumon stated.

TK shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Hm, well now that we're with TK, we should go and look for the others. Do you have any idea where anyone would be, TK?"

"I only know Matt went off in a boat in that direction," he said, pointing over to the pier Matt had left from.

"Great, let's go get a boat and go find him."

"Well, as much as I'd love to join you, I'm not going."

"What do you mean TK?"

"Like the others, I have some soul-searching I need to do before I'm ready to rejoin this group of ours."

"What? What could an eight-year old have to soul-search for?"

TK glared at Tai. "I'm not going Tai," he said absolutely.

Tai shook his head. "No, Matt would kill me if he knew I found you and then let you go. You're coming with me and Agumon to find the others, TK, and that's final."

He was being treated like a fragile little kid again, and his temper started flaring.

"Tsukaimon?"

"Purple Haze"

Tsukaimon jumped off of TK's head and blew out purple smog, which surrounded the nearby area. Tai and Agumon started coughing, while TK ran away as fast as he could. He ran for a while before deciding to hide behind a tree, as Tsukaimon flew over and once again perched on top of his head.

He watched as the smoke cleared and Tai and Agumon looked around confusedly. They both started yelling out "TK's" and Tai took out his digivice to try and locate TK, but Tai was not having any luck. He couldn't help but chuckle as Tai and Agumon looked around the nearby area helplessly.

Eventually the two gave up and decided to get on one of the swan boats and paddle off to where he had said Matt had gone. Once they were a safe distance away, TK came out of his hiding spot and watched the swan boat disappear into the horizon.

He wasn't lying to Tai; he did have some soul-searching he had to do. He needed to try to figure out what was going on with him. He needed to understand what had happened just recently with Tsukaimon digivolving. He needed to find a way to use his digivice and crest like he had at Piximon's place. And he also had to get some information on this Lord Myotismon that DemiDevimon had alluded to. Yeah, he had a lot of things on his plate that he needed to take care of, but for right now, he smiled as he was once again alone and this time with his newly digivolved partner.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

* * *

Chapter 6:

His feet were sore and tired. He hadn't gotten much sleep recently and his eyelids were drooping. Tsukaimon sat on top of his bare head; he had taken his hat off because of how hot it was in the forest. He could hear buzzing noises and the sound of leaves rustling as insect digimon flew through the forest. Rubbing his forehead to wipe of the sweat, he sight heavily and looked at the crest he held in his hand.

Since he had left the amusement park a couple of nights ago, he had decided he would try to tap into his crest and digivice. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or how to tap into his devices' powers because the only times he had done so were on impulse. He hadn't been able to make his crest glow or get any reaction from his digivice, so he felt like giving up.

Luckily he never ran into any of the other digidestineds; he wasn't sure if he wanted to face Tai after ditching him or answer their persistent questions about his wellbeing or Tsukaimon's. Being alone was enjoyable; he was able to wallow in his negative feelings and not have to fake happiness or joy to the others.

He was grateful for Tsukaimon; it was nice to have someone or, more accurately, some _mon_ there to be there with you even when your walls are done. Tsukaimon never questioned him or gave him any grief; actually, Tsukaimon hardly spoke at all.

After he had ditched Tai, he was able to realize that Tokomon had not digivolved into Patamon. He wasn't sure how he felt about it; he missed Patamon and his cheeful demeanor. He also would hate himself if his darkness had caused Patamon not to come back. But Tsukaimon pretty much acted the same as Patamon, just except for the talking. He wasn't sure if Tsukaimon was supposed to have happened, but either way Tokomon had digivolved and there was no changing who Tokomon digivolved into.

There was a nagging question of what Tsukaimon would digivolve into, if Tsukaimon digivolved at all. Thinking about this question made him extremely nervous. Tsukaimon seemed to be the opposite of Patamon, and since Patamon digivolved into Angemon, then Tsukaimon would digivolve into the opposite of Angemon. He couldn't help but worry that his partner would digivolve into Devimon, the fallen angel that had opposed Angemon back at Infinity Mountain. Having Tsukaimon digivolve into Devimon was the most repulsive thought, and he hoped that this was not true. He couldn't be sure, though, until Tsukaimon actually digivolved.

Unfortunately he hadn't had much success on finding out who this Myotismon character was. All he knew for sure was that DemiDevimon was a henchman of Myotismon. He wondered what DemiDevimon was trying to accomplish. The digimon clearly had plans of tricking him, and the digimon had been interested in his crest. DemiDevimon had said something about how his crest was supposed to be the crest of hope, but he knew deep down that his crest was not the crest of hope. By looking at the crest, he could tell it was a representation of something darker, something much different from hope. But what was it? Was understanding the crest the key to obtaining its power?

Too many thoughts were in his head and he didn't have the answers to many of his own questions, so he decided to take a mental and physical break by sitting down with his back against a tree.

Tsukaimon flew off his head and flew into the forest, disappearing after flying past multiple trees. He was confused about why his partner had flew off like that, but he could tell that Tsukaimon would be back soon. He took this time to observe his surroundings.

After leaving the amusement park, he had wandered into a deep, thick forest. Often times he wondered if he was going in circles because of how similar everything looked, but he reasoned that there was no way he was. He hadn't seen many digimon, but he did hear the regular sounds of a forest from back home. Right now a cool breeze was blowing through the forest, and he closed his eyes to enjoy it.

He was about to fall asleep when he heard wings flapping close by. He opened them quickly to see that it was just Tsukaimon returning with a couple of branches that had berries on them. Tsukaimon had brought back an assortment of red, blue, and black berries. He picked a red one off of the branch, plopped it in his mouth, and tasted it. The berry was sweet, juicy, and delicious. He noticed Tsukaimon staring at him, almost as if his partner was looking to see if he had enjoyed the berries.

"They're delicious, Tsukaimon! Thank you!"

Tsukaimon gave a light smile. He was surprised by the smile because Tsukaimon seemed to have an unwavering frown on at all times. He almost thought he saw Tsukaimon's eyes start to lighten as well, but then the smile was gone and with it the light from his partner's eyes.

As he sat there, he noticed that for the first time in a long time he felt ok. He didn't feel like skipping through the forest laughing the whole time, but his dark feelings inside seemed to have settled down. With the breeze, the delicious berries, and the presence of his partner, he felt... satisfied.

He heard bugs swarming in the distance, but he didn't pay it any attention, deciding it was just one of those forest noises he had been hearing. But the sound got louder quickly, and he could tell that he was in danger. Across from him, he saw branches moving quickly, almost as if something was coming towards them.

Soon after that, three yellow bug digimon appeared. The digimon had green eyes, many sharp teeth, and six stingers underneath their bodies. They reminded him of dragonflies; really angry and dangerous dragonflies.

"Yanmamon," his partner said, worried.

"Thunder Ray"

The digimon thrust their tails towards him and Tsukaimon and three beams of electricity shot right at them. He was able to dive out of the way as the beams struck the spot he had just been standing. The Yanmamon then proceeded to dive right at him, fangs ready to rip his flesh to pieces.

"Friendly Fire!"

A fireball struck the three Yanmamon, distracting them enough for him to get out of the way. He then decided that his best option was running and shot off as fast as he could. He looked back to see that Tsukaimon was following, along with the three Yanmamon, which looked even angrier than they did before. He willed himself to run faster, but ended up tripping and falling to the ground. He landed with a thud and quickly flipped over to see that the Yanmamon were getting too close for comfort.

A familiar wave of anger came upon him. These stupid digimon had to attack right when he was feeling the best he had in as long as he could remember. He and his partner were finally relaxing, and the Yanmamon had ruined it.

"That's it," he said aloud, "No more running."

His digivice started vibrating and his crest started glowing.

"Slamming Attack!"

Tsukaimon had turned as well and now flew right at the three Yanmamon, preparing to tackle them. The Yanmamon dodged Tsukaimon's attack and continued flying right towards him. He wouldn't have been ashamed to feel a little afraid of the incoming digimon, but he was too mad to feel afraid. These digimon not only ruined his mood but also had attacked his partner and tried to hurt Tsukaimon. The Yanmamon needed to be destroyed.

At that moment a dark beam of energy shot out of his digivice right at the charging Yanmamon. The beam was pitch black and encompassed the entire surroundings in darkness. Eventually the darkness faded away and TK saw that the Yanmamon were gone.

Before he had time to think about what had happened, he felt all of his energy leave him, causing him to start falling. He never felt his body hit the ground as he had already passed out.

* * *

"Do you see what I mean Gennai?"

Piximon was flying right next to Gennai. Centarumon was walking on the other side of Gennai with TK lying on his back. Tsukaimon was flying close to TK.

"I agree with Piximon," Centarumon stated. "This digidestined might be able to use the powers of darkness to battle the enemies of the Digital World."

"The powers of darkness are what we are trying to rid the Digital World of," Gennai shot back.

Ever since the digidestineds had left his house after their training, he had been talking with Gennai to see what they should do about TK. Piximon had been astounded by what TK had done, protecting him from Etemon's Dark Network, and since then had been convinced that TK had a certain power inside of him unlike that of the other digidestineds. This power might be what they need to pose a real threat to the powers of darkness. But Gennai was convinced that the power inside of TK was evil and should not be meddled with.

Neither Centarumon nor Piximon responded to Gennai's statement. He had to admit that it was contradictory, wanting to fight the forces of evil with the powers of darkness, but Piximon was convinced that there was a difference. Against Tyrannomon, TK had used his power to protect. Evil does not protect. But neither does darkness, or does it?

"I know it seems crazy, Gennai," Piximon attempted to reason, "But why not try to see what TK can accomplish? You've seen what he is capable of..."

"And you have seen the effects this power has had on him, and his digimon partner!" Gennai fired back. "I had thought that Tokomon's digivolution would stop your silly ideas, Piximon, but it seems you do not care what happens to TK or his partner."

Piximon lowered his head in shame as he realized that there were obvious consequences and potential hazards for trying to use this dark power inside of TK. It wasn't his intention for TK or Tokomon to get hurt, but he couldn't deny the fact that every time TK accessed this power he got hurt, and now Tokomon had digivolved into a Tsukaimon.

Gennai continued, with a softer tone, "Besides, I worry that the darkness inside of him is already trying to assume control of his mind and body."

"But what if TK learns to control this darkness inside of him?" Centarumon asked.

Piximon nodded, "Yeah, then he wouldn't hurt himself from using this power and he would remain in control."

Gennai countered, "And what if this fails and the darkness inside of TK overwhelms him? He would not be able to return after giving in to the darkness, and all of our work in trying to stop the evil forces would be worthless. It is too risky."

"But what if I trained him?"

Gennai, Centarumon, and Tsukaimon all looked at him with curious looks on their faces.

"And what would you know about the powers of darkness, Piximon?" Centarumon asked.

"Well," he nervously started, "I don't know anything about them. But..."

"Exactly," Gennai interrupted. "You don't know anything about the powers of darkness or how to control them. How are you supposed to train someone in using darkness when you yourself don't know anything about the subject?"

He thought about what he wanted to say, and then said, "You both know how good I am at training; I helped Tai and Agumon find themselves after Greymon digivolved into SkullGreymon. I don't know how, but I'll find a way to train TK and help him control this darkness inside of him."

Gennai didn't seem convinced, but Centarumon nodded, "If anyone could do it, it would be you, Piximon."

Gennai looked like he wanted to contradict him, but he hesitated. During the silence, Tsukaimon spoke up, "Do it!"

He looked over at Tsukaimon with a bit of surprise; Tsukaimon hardly spoke at all, so it was unusual to hear the digimon speak. Gennai was surprised as well and stared at Tsukaimon. After a couple of moments, Gennai looked away from the Patamon lookalike and hummed.

"He has a duty to fulfill with the other digidestineds..."

"And he will do whatever he needs to when that time comes. But until then, let me try to train TK. If I fear he will endanger himself or the other digidestineds, then I will stop my training immediately."

Gennai added, "He must also be able to be summoned when he is needed. Myotismon will be entering the Real World soon, and TK must be with the others to go find the eighth digidestined and stop Myotismon."

"Fair enough," he said.

"And Piximon." Gennai stopped walking and turned to face him. "You must try to get TK to find his way out of this darkness. He is the digidestined of hope, and the fate of our world is dependent on him, just as much, if not more so, than the other digidestineds. You must lead him back to his natural state of hope. Do I make myself clear?"

Piximon nodded, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to get a better deal from Gennai.

Centarumon showed his approval of the terms with a nod. "I guess it is settled then, I wish you luck Piximon."

* * *

His eyes didn't want to open as his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. He felt a little tired, but otherwise felt fine. Trying to remember how he had gotten here, he sat up quickly. His body started aching with the sudden movement and he gasped from the pain. When the pain had faded a little, he opened his tired, heavy eyes.

He was surprised to see that he was now longer in a forest, but rather on a bed in some type of house. He noticed Tsukaimon flying right in front of his face. He was glad to see that his partner looked ok.

"Are you ok?" Tsukaimon asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm ok," he responded, and Tsukaimon then flew into his stomach as if to give him a big hug. He was too tired, though, to remain upright, and the momentum of Tsukaimon's hug made him fall back onto his back. He didn't mind, though, because his partner was ok and he was ok. He returned his partner's tight hug and couldn't help but smile.

He was smiling. His jaw muscles felt sore from being set into a frown for the longest time. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had smiled and actually felt... happy, but just as soon as the smile came it was then gone.

"Ah, glad to see you are awake."

He looked towards where the familiar voice came from and was surprised to see Gennai standing in the doorway.

"Gennai, is that you?" he asked.

"I'm glad that you remember me," he said happily.

"What am I doing here?" He flinched at the coldness of his voice. Wasn't he just "happy" a second ago? Why was he now engulfed in the familiar feelings of negativity and sadness?

"Do you remember how you passed out?"

"Of course, there were three Yanmamon that attacked us, but a light shot out my digivice and destroyed them. I don't remember anything other than that."

Gennai nodded. "Me, Piximon, and Centarumon came to get you after you had passed out. We are now at my place where you have been resting the past day."

"Day?" he shouted out, "I've been passed out for an entire day?"

Again, Gennai nodded. Great, he had finally been able to use the power of his digivice and crest again, only to pass out from the incident. Maybe those powers were more trouble than they were worth. No, that's not true. It was because of those powers that he had been able to protect himself and Tsukaimon; he just had to learn how to control those powers.

"I can see the wheels turning in your head, but come now, I have some food in the other room."

As if responding to Gennai's offering, his stomach grumbled loudly. He nodded and hopped off the bed, following Gennai out of the room.

He entered what he assumed was the living room. A low-level table was centered in the room and had various foods scattered on the table. As hungry as he was, his eyes drifted away from the food towards the windows. Outside of the windows were... fish? Fish of many different colors were swimming outside the window.

"Wh... where am I?"

"This is my home!" Gennai announced.

"What's up with the fish?"

"I find them to be interesting scenery."

He was still confused, but he shook it off and sat down at the table. A plate was already ready for him, so he filled it up with food and started chowing down. After the majority of his hunger pangs faded away, he realized he had so many questions he wanted to ask Gennai, but he didn't know how to phrase some of the questions.

"Gennai, what's going on with me?" he finally asked.

Gennai sighed, "Alas, even I do not know what is going on with you TK, bearer of hope."

There was that "hope" again, just like DemiDevimon had mentioned. He was about to ask about it when Gennai continued, "I assume the powers of darkness that are trying to take control of the Digital World have decided to target you specifically."

"But... why me?"

"You see, TK, you and your friends are the digidestineds. You have been chosen to protect the Digital World as well as your own world alongside your digimon partners. In order to enable your digimon to digivolve and achieve the necessary level to combat these evil forces, you were each given a digivice and a crest. The crests are specifically important as they enable your digimon to reach the ultimate level, but this can only be done when the user possesses the trait the crest represents. For example, Tai's crest is the crest of courage. Greymon was able to digivolve to MetalGreymon because of Tai's courage to save Sora and defeat Etemon."

The information registered into his brain and he nodded. As soon as he did, Gennai continued, "Each of your crests has its own meaning. As I said, Tai's is the crest of courage, Matt's is the crest of friendship, Izzy's is the crest of knowledge, Sora's is the crest of love, Mimi's is the crest of sincerity, Joe's is the crest of reliability, and yours, TK, is..."

"Hope," he finished.

Gennai nodded.

"But," TK started, taking out his crest and looking at it, "This isn't the crest of hope; it can't be."

"Actually, your crest is still indeed the crest of hope."

"How can that be, Gennai?" he asked curiously, "Isn't hope supposed to be..." he scratched his head, trying to think of the right word before settling on, " _lighter._ "

Gennai rubbed his chin in thought, "Yes, your crest was indeed supposed to be, as you say, lighter."

"Then what happened?" he asked.

"It has to do with the darkness inside of you."

"The darkness inside of me?"

Memories of when Patamon first digivolved flashed through his head. He remembered something go into him through the back of his neck and then hearing a strange voice inside his head. But that wasn't the moment his life had turned upside-down, it was when SkullGreymon digivolved. More memories came to him. He was watching Tai run out towards the two Greymon battling each other. The other digimon tried to help Tai, but Greymon was already starting to digivolve. He was just about to pass out before he felt something pop in the back of his neck. The puzzle was still hazy, but some of the pieces started connecting.

"It has to do with Devimon, whatever Devimon put inside of me."

"Well, yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"You see," Gennai said, "What Devimon put inside of you was some type of dark device intended to engulf you in darkness. You were able to repel its power after Angemon's death, but the dark energy from SkullGreymon's digivolution was what activated the darkness. Since then, that darkness has been spreading throughout your entire body and soul, and now it is bringing out the darkness that was already inside of you before you even came into the Digital World."

Gennai paused, allowing TK to process everything that was being told to him. He was angry at Devimon for putting that stupid thing inside of him. He was angry at himself for not being strong enough to deal with whatever was going on with him. Tsukaimon must have been able to notice how agitated he was and landed on his shoulder, trying to comfort him in some way.

"So, what does this all mean, Gennai?" he asked a little sharply.

Gennai wasn't phased by the boy's harsh tone and replied, "It means that right now you are not the digidestined of hope that you are supposed to be."

"And what am I supposed to do about that?" he asked, not hiding the anger in his voice, "It's not like you're helping either."

Gennai sighed, "TK, there's nothing that I can do. This wasn't supposed to have happened, but, alas, it has. What happens from here on out is dependent on you and you alone."

"Me?"

"Yes, TK. We need your hope if we are to save both worlds from the powers of evil that threaten them. But this darkness has buried your hope deep down inside of you, almost to the point where you feel having hope is impossible for you."

"You make it sound like this is all a negative thing. This 'darkness' protected Piximon back when Etemon was still here, and it also protected me and Tsukaimon from those Yanmamon."

"And since you have used this 'power,' how has it affected you?" Gennai countered.

As much as he wanted to fire right back at Gennai, he had to admit that the old man had a point. Each time he had used this darkness it had zapped him of his energy, and it felt like it increased the strength of the negative feelings inside of him.

"But that's why you're going to have me to train you!"

He swiftly turned around to see a familiar pink fluffball digimon, Piximon.

"Piximon!"

Piximon smiled at him. "Gennai has agreed to let me train you and help you figure out this whole 'darkness' thing, yep yep."

"But," Gennai interrupted, "You must fulfill your duties as a digidestined. Whenever we need you to come back and join the others, you must do so immediately. You are the digidestined of hope, TK, not the digidestined of darkness. It is my hope that Piximon will be able to help you find your way out of this darkness."

Out of the darkness? This isn't what he had intended to do at all! He wanted to use his darkness, use this negative thing to his advantage like he had done so in the past. He was about to speak up when Piximon interrupted.

"And the training starts now, yep yep. Come on TK, Tsukaimon, we have a lot of work to do!"

Piximon proceeded to fly out of the house, leaving Gennai, TK and Tsukaimon still inside.

"But I have so many more questions for you, Gennai, and I still don't understand everything that is going on!"

"Neither do I, TK. As for your questions, I'm sure you will find the answers as time goes on. Now, go, before I change my mind and make you return to the others."

This was the last thing he wanted to do, so he took a quick swig of water, picked up Tsukaimon, placed Tsukaimon on top of his head, and walked out of the house, not sure what to expect in the near future.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon

* * *

Chapter 7:

"Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty! Now get up and start running TK, yep yep!"

He sighed heavily as he pushed himself off of the ground and got up to his feet. His entire body ached in protest to his movements as he started running.

He had been training with Piximon for five days now and it had been brutal. Piximon had been pushing his body to the limits during his "training." He had lost count of the number of pushups, sit-ups, and miles he had ran since it all started, and his body ached just thinking about it. He didn't think Piximon's training would be anything as physically demanding as this.

He must have slowed down because Piximon yelled at him, "Pick up the pace boy! You're running as slow as a Snailmon!"

The urge to stop and hit Piximon was tempting, but Tsukaimon flew up next to him and said quietly, "You can do it TK!"

He would have quit if it wasn't for Tsukaimon. Despite Tsukaimon's quiet nature, his partner still cared for him as much as Patamon did. This had made him believe that Tsukaimon was indeed Patamon and that thought comforted him.

After a couple of miles, Piximon told him to stop and take a break. His thighs were burning from the uphill run, so he took a seat and tried to catch his breath.

They had left the thick of the forest a couple days ago and now were approaching some sort of mountain range. As they neared the mountains, there were fewer and fewer trees. There was a slight incline to the land as well. Off in the distance he heard what sounded like water flowing. He slowly got back to his feet and headed towards the sound of water.

He was right because in a clearing there was a small river flowing slowly. The water looked clear and he could even see an occasional fish swim by. He got onto his knees and put his hands in the water. The cool water ran through his fingers, washing the dirt that had accumulated on his hands. After washing his hands as best he could, he cupped his hands together and drank. The water tasted as refreshing as the water looked, though that could have been because of how thirsty he was. He took another drink and his dry mouth started to moisten, quenching his thirst.

Tsukaimon and Piximon caught up to him and both drank from the river as well. After he was satisfied, he pulled his shoes and socks off and dropped his feet into the water. He rested his elbows on the ground and leaned back, his body starting to cool down from the run.

"Piximon, what is the point of this training?" he asked.

Piximon responded, "It is only with good physical shape that one can also be in good mental shape."

"But all I've been doing is running and doing pushups; this isn't helping me at all."

"This training is helping you more than you think, but you are right. Maybe it is time we take a break from the physical aspect of our training and move on to the mental aspect."

'Finally,' he thought to himself. Maybe now he would be able to start trying to use his abilities.

"Firstly, it is important to understand what exactly is the source of your power. Now, as you are a digidestined, your powers come from the digivice and the crest. But, the powers of the digivice and the crest come from the individual digidestined. Each digidestined has a specific characteristic that they represent, and when the digidestined expresses this characteristic, then the power of the crest and digivice are activated and can be accessed."

"But I'm different from the others, right?"

"Yep yep. You were intended to be the digidestind of hope, so the hope inside of you was supposed to be what powered your digivice and crest. But something happened so that your hope was taken away from you. This has affected your digivice and crest as well, and now your digivice and crest seem to be activated by your feelings of darkness."

"So, in order to use the power of the digivice and the crest, I must use my dark feelings?"

Piximon sighed, "Yes and no. You see, your crest is still indeed the crest of hope, and, according to Gennai, if you were to exhibit feelings of hope, then the intended power from your digivice and crest would be accessible. But somehow your digivice and crest can be used when you have feelings of darkness as well."

"But that's a good thing isn't it?" he asked, "Why is Gennai so opposed to this side of my digivice and crest."

"It is because this is not the intended use for your digivice and crest. Your digivice and crest were created to use the power of hope, not the power of anything else. For example, Tai's courage would not be able to make Agumon digivolve if Tai was using your crest. So the fact that you are using darkness with your digivice and crest is a contradiction. Gennai worries that there will be unforeseen misfortunes if you were to continue using your digivice and crest with darkness. Also, Gennai believes you won't be able to fulfill your responsibilities as the digidestined of hope if you use the dark powers."

TK nodded, allowing the information Piximon had told him to settle in.

"Ok, now I know where the power comes from. So what do I do to access this power?"

"I think you know the answer to that, yep yep."

"Well, I know it's the dark feelings inside of me, but how come I can't use them now?"

"TK, think back to all the times you and the others have used your digivices and crests. He obeyed Piximon and thought back to when the digimon had all digivolved into their champion forms and even, for Agumon, his ultimate form: Greymon, Garurumon, Birdramon, Togemon, Kabuterimon, Ikkakumon, Angemon, and MetalGreymon.

"Ok..."

"And now think back to the times when you used your dark powers."

He remembered attacking Kokatorimon, protecting Piximon against Tyrannomon, battling DemiDevimon, and defeating the Yanmamon. He then started to see the pieces come together.

"They all were battles," he realized.

Piximon nodded, "Each of these times, you, one of your friends, and/or your digimon partner were in trouble. So, the same requirement is needed to access your digivice and crest."

He was glad that he had figured this out, but something was still bothering him.

"How are we going to train if I constantly have to be battling to even use my digivice and crest? We're not going to battle the entire Digital World are we?"

"No, of course not. There are other things we can do to help train you, yep yep."

"It doesn't involve more running does it?"

Piximon laughed, but he wasn't as amused as Piximon was.

Piximon then cleared his throat and asked, "TK, do you think darkness is evil?"

The question had caught him off guard and he didn't know how to respond. He thought about Piximon's question, and the more he thought the more confused he got. Growing up, he had watched many cartoons where there were bad guys and good guys. The bad guys typically lived in dark places, like caves, or haunted castles. The cartoons also seemed to show that wherever there is darkness, there is some type of evil. So his initial answer was 'yes,' but he thought about it some more. He had dark feelings inside of him and even wanted to use them to help protect him, his partner, and his friends. This wasn't 'evil' was it? Or maybe he was turning evil and just didn't know it.

"I... I don't know. I mean, yes, evil and darkness are kind of the same thing, but I have some darkness inside of me and I don't think I'm evil. I don't know. What do you think, Piximon?"

Piximon wore a quizzical look and responded, "I am not sure either. I used to think that evil was the same thing as darkness. After all, the powers of darkness are threatening the existence of our worlds. But now I am starting to think that evil and darkness are not the same thing."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, when you used your darkness back at my house against Tyrannomon, you protected me from Etemon's attack. I don't believe protecting me was evil; it in fact was a good thing. But that good thing was done by your darkness."

TK nodded, "I see what you mean. And against the Yanmamon, I used them to save me and Tsukaimon."

"Exactly, yep yep. So that tells me that darkness has the potential to do both good and evil."

"Does that mean that the darkness inside of me can do both good and evil?"

"Yes, and that is what Gennai is so nervous of. You have used your powers for good so far, but you could also use your powers for evil as well."

TK shook his head, "That can't be true."

"Haven't you already attacked your own brother?"

He dropped his head in shame as he remembered that time at the sphinx when he had attacked Matt for intruding on his and Izzy's conversation. He remembered the look of fear Matt had in his eyes when he had done so, and it unnerved him.

"But you have used your powers for good as well! You see, we have already seen that your darkness has two sides to it. The key to your power is what side you are using it for, good or evil."

"So how do I keep from using my powers for evil?" he asked, a little scared of the fact that he could do something evil.

"I'm not certain, but I believe it all has to do with how you control the darkness. Take Devimon, for example. Devimon used the powers of darkness to try and take over File Island. By the end when he was battling with you at Mount Infinity, he had gone completely out of control and had practically become mad. You must learn to not lose grip of your darkness and not let it take over you."

He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer, but he asked, "And what would happen if I did lose control?"

Piximon hesitated and was about to reply when a recognizable voice spoke up, "You will lose yourself."

He, Piximon, and Tsukaimon all turned around quickly to see that Gennai had appeared in one of his classic rainbow holograms.

"Gennai!"

"Hello digidestined of hope, hello Piximon. How has your training been going?"

"I've gotten TK worked up into really good shape, yep yep."  
He nodded in agreement, "It was the worst."

"And I see you were just in a deep conversation."

"All part of the training," Piximon said nervously.

"Let's _hope_ that it was, Piximon."

"What do you mean by I'd lose myself?" he asked.

"Let's just stay that evil and darkness sort of have a magnetic effect on each other where they are naturally drawn together, while light and darkness have the opposite effect. And once darkness has been engulfed in evil, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to escape the evil. This is the reason you must not dawdle with the darkness, for it is far too dangerous, right Piximon?"

"Of course, Gennai."

"Right. Now, there is a reason I have contacted you. TK, you need to return to the others and fulfill your responsibilities as a digidestined."

He groaned in disgust at the thought of returning to the others. It wasn't that he didn't want to see them again, but he had been learning so much on his own. He didn't have to worry about what the others thought of him or how he acted around them. When he was alone, he could be himself, and he enjoyed it as much as he could.

"And if I don't want to go...?"

"Then you will go anyways. There is an eighth digidestined in Japan, and Myotismon has found a way to travel to your world. He plans on finding the eigth digidestined and destroying him or her before they can activate their crest. You and the others must follow Myotismon back to the Real World and unite with the eighth digidestined."

An eighth digidestined? He rolled his eyes in annoyance; this just meant there was going to be another person that he had to worry about.

"Where are the others right now?" he inquired, not really interested, but he wanted to know that they were at least ok.

"I have contacted them recently and they had just escaped from Myotismon's attack thanks to Sora's crest causing Birdramon to digivolve. I told them of Myotismon's plan and your responsibility of finding this digidestined before Myotismon does. They all are heading to Myotismon's castle right now."

Thanks to Piximon, he had been able to learn more about this Myotismon character. Apparently he was an ultimate level digimon that resembled a vampire. Myotismon was very strong and very evil, according to the pink fluffball. He even remembered Piximon mentioning Myotismon having a hideout of some kind, which must have been the castle Gennai alluded to.

"How soon can you be to Myotismon's castle?" Gennai asked, turning to face Piximon.

"I can have TK there by tomorrow afternoon. I figured you would want him to go there anyway, so we were already heading in that direction, yep yep."

"Good," Gennai said, satisfied, "And one more thing, TK. I told the others about your situation."

"What?" TK exclaimed, "What'd you do that for?"

"They have a right to know what is going on. Matt would have strangled me by the neck trying to get me to tell you how you were if I had not been talking to them with this hologram and was actually there with them. That's not the point. The point is that your friends are worried about you and are eager to see you soon."

"Great," he mumbled to himself; he couldn't wait for that to happen.

"Is that it Gennai?" Piximon asked.

"Yes, that is all. I have a feeling I will be seeing you and the others shortly. Safe travels!"

* * *

Darkness surrounded him from every angle. The only light around him came from the fire they had started before going to sleep. The fire radiated a light that repelled the darkness from creeping in too close, but outside the fire's aura the darkness was deep. A cloudy night sky prevented the stars' lights from shining down to the ground. Everything was eerily quiet, save for the crackling of the fire. A light breeze caused him to shiver from a sudden chill.

He wasn't sure, but he thought that before he came to the Digital World he would have been scared to be sitting in the dark like he was. But now, he didn't find the darkness to be scary. In fact, he felt comfortable being in this environment; it felt like he belonged here. That being said, he also felt drawn to the light of the fire. It felt like he had a battle raging on inside of him, the battlers being light and darkness.

"Hope is both light and dark, TK."

He instantly sat up straight, looking around curiously for the voice. It wasn't Tsukaimon or Piximon, so he was nervous, but the voice did not sound confrontational, so he wasn't too worried.

"You won't find me out there," the voice spoke again.

'Then where are you,' he thought to himself, still looking around to find the source of the voice.

"I am you, at least a part of you," the voice responded.

He was shocked that the voice had responded to his thought. 'Great,' he thought, 'now I'm hearing voices in my head.'

"You're not going crazy TK."

Once again he was shocked that the voice had responded to his thought and this made him suspicious.

"You don't need to worry. I will not harm you, TK; I am here to help."

'Wh.. who are you?' he thought in his head, hoping that the voice would respond and that he wasn't crazy.

"I told you, I am a part of you, TK."

A memory ran through his mind. He was back at Infinity Mountain and Angemon had just been deleted. He was on his knees, mourning his partner's death. Then there was a voice inside his head trying to get him to lose hope in Angemon returning. He agreed with everything the voice had said about him, but he couldn't believe that Angemon was gone forever.

"I am not the same being as you are thinking," the voice spoke, interrupting his thoughts, "But I am a part of you because of that being."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"It's hard to describe in words, but, essentially, I am darkness."

The voice wasn't making any sense to him. "I still don't understand."

"Who I am exactly is not important. What is important is you, TK."

"What are you talking about?"

"TK, there is a dark being trying to engulf all of the worlds, including the Digital World and your world, in total darkness, and he needs to be stopped"

"Why would you be opposed to this guy, since you are, as you say, darkness?"

"TK, there is much more to darkness than the evil desires of some digimon. You are starting to see the beauty of the darkness, the power of the darkness. As I'm sure you are starting to find out, darkness is neither good nor evil by itself; it is the intentions of the user of darkness that make it good or evil. There are many that use the darkness for evil, and this has given darkness a bad reputation. But, as you have shown, darkness has the potential to be used for good, for protection."

"Yes, but I still don't understand why you are opposed to the worlds becoming dark."

"Balance, that is the answer, TK."

"Balance?"

"Yes, TK, balance. A world of complete darkness or complete light would be catastrophic. Imagine a world where you only feel anger, sadness, turmoil, and there is no happiness, no light to counteract these feelings."

He thought about that and shivered at the thought, "That would be awful."

"Yes, just as a world where you only feel giddy, cheerful, joyful, and no sadness, no anger, no sorrow to mellow the light. What is enjoyable would lose its pleasure because there would be nothing that brought sadness or grief to compare it to. You see, the darkness and light are always in conflict with each other; where one is the other cannot. But, you cannot have one without the other. There is always a shadow in the midst of the light, and a little light can outshine even the most intense darkness."

He allowed what the voice had told him to sink in before he continued, "So there needs to be balance, I get that, but why are you only talking to me? What about the other digidestineds?"

"Courage, friendship, love, sincerity, reliability, knowledge. All of those are capable of both light and dark, but they are the most pure in the light. Hope, though, remains the same, whether it is in light or darkness. As I said earlier, hope is both light and dark. Only you are capable of using your digivice and crest's true power without corruption when using darkness. You have already seen what happened when courage tried to use the powers of darkness."

Courage? Friendship? Was he talking about their crests? He must have; that meant courage was another name for Tai. But when had Tai used dark... SkullGreymon.

"That's right, TK. Courage could not control the powers of darkness and was easily overwhelmed by them. You, however, have the capability of using the powers of darkness while controlling them."

"So, what do you want from me then?" he asked.

"If we are to stop this being from ruling over the worlds with darkness, then the only way to stop him for good is with darkness. I need you to continue using the powers of darkness. But I must warn you, there is a great power in darkness, and it takes a strong, resilient being to control the darkness. You must learn to use the darkness without losing yourself; if that happens, you might not be able to find yourself again."

He wasn't exactly sure what the voice meant, but he could tell that he was serious by the tone of the voice. "Ok, but how exactly am I supposed to do that?"

"Hope. If you are able to hold on to your hope in the midst of the darkness, then you will be fine. It looks like you have your first test. Good luck."

The voice faded away and he was confused.

"No, come back! What do you mean by test?"

There was no response. He listened as hard as he could but he didn't hear the voice. Instead, he heard a noise that sent chills down his spine. Angry growls like that of a wolf could be heard nearby. He looked around his surroundings and spotted multiple sets of red eyes circling around him.

"Uh... Tsukaimon? Piximon?"

He heard the two digimon start rustling.

"Wh.. what is it TK?" Piximon asked.

"We've got company," he answered simply.

At this, Piximon and Tsukaimon became fully alert and took defensive postures as they surveyed the area.

"Gururumon," Piximon muttered.

"Do you mean Garurumon?"

The nearby digimon's growls intensified.

"No, I mean Gururumon. And apparently they don't like being mistaken for their look-a-like."

"Chaos Blaster!"

One of the Gururumon decided to pounce. It was then that he was able to get a good look at the digimon. Gururumon looked very similar to Garurumon, except for the fire-red eyes and black claws. He also noticed a slightly different pattern on the digimon's fur.

Gururumon launched his attack, which greatly resembled Garurumon's Howling Blaster, save for it being the same color red as Gururumon's eyes.

"Magical Tail!" Piximon exclaimed while moving in front of the attack and twirling his spear so quickly that it became a blur to his eyes. Gururumon's attack bounced off of Piximon's spear shield, and as Gururumon started to fall closer towards Piximon, Piximon took his spear and slammed it into Gururumon, causing the wolf to howl in pain as he hit the ground hard.

"Animal Bite!"

He quickly turned around to see another Gururumon charging at him with his jaw opened wide, revealing many sharp, razor teeth.

In that moment, all he could think of was how mad he was that these digimon had decided to attack him and his friends for no reason at all. He didn't want to just protect himself from them; he wanted the Gururumon to be destroyed, to be punished for their actions.

Instantly his crest started glowing and a black barrier appeared between him and the attacking Gururumon. As soon as the Gururumon hit the barrier, black electricity shot through Gururumon's body, causing him to yelp in pain. The barrier then disappeared.

He felt tired after what had happened, but his anger towards the Gururumon continued to boil dangerously hot.

"Tsukaimon," he said cooly, which surprised him because he felt like his insides were shaking with anger, "Digivolve."

A black beam of light shot out from his digivice towards Tsukaimon, who became engulfed in the dark light. He tried to see his partner change forms, but he couldn't see through the darkness. Finally, the black light faded, revealing a monster.

In place of Tsukaimon was now a huge black dragon digimon. The dragon had dangerously sharp red claws, four piercing red eyes, fierce white teeth, and inky black wings. The beast was quite scary looking, but TK was just relieved that Tsukaimon hadn't digivolved into Devimon.

"Go get them!" he ordered.

The digimon obeyed and charged at the Gururumon who was still recovering from lunging into his barrier. Gururumon had no time to react as his partner sliced through his body with his blood-red claws, shredding the wolf into little pieces of data, which evaporated into the night sky.

"Chaos Blaster!" another Gururumon yelled, launching its attack at his partner from behind.

"Watch out!" he warned, but it was not needed as his partner quickly flew up to dodge the attack and then turn around and land back on the ground facing the Gururumon.

"Red Eyes!"

His partner's eyes narrowed and stared right at Gururumon. The Gururumon was staring right back and growling, but did not move a muscle. Eventually the Gururumon stopped growling and just stood there, almost like he was frozen in that spot.

"Crimson Claw!"

His partner took this time to launch his own attack, and he shredded the Gururumon into pieces, like he had with the other.

In the distance he heard a "BIT Bomb!" and turned only to see an explosion. He quickly covered his eyes, and only when it had stopped did he open his eyes back up.

Everything was quiet again, just as it had been before. He didn't spot any more of the Gururumon anywhere, leaving just him, Piximon, and his partner.

His anger still boiled inside of him, but started to dim down as the threat was now gone. His partner started glowing black and turned back into Tsukaimon. Tsukaimon was falling to the ground in exhaustion, so he sprinted to catch his partner before he hit the ground. He sighed in relief when he had Tsukaimon safely in his arms. The little digimon was unconscious right now, but didn't appear to be in any pain.

He didn't know what to make out of his partner's digivolution. A part of it had scared him, but another part excited him.

"So Tsukaimon digivolved into Devidramon. I can see why Gennai does not want you using the powers of darkness."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Devidramon are nasty digimon. They are blood-hungry and demonic. They may only be champion digimon, but I would not want to mess with one."

"Devidramon," he said in awe, looking down at his partner, "Thank you."

Piximon said that he should get some sleep. He objected, but Piximon insisted and even said he'd take watch duty the rest of the night. It was slight, but he felt that Piximon was almost... afraid of him, as if something during their battle had uneased the pink fluffball. But he couldn't pay any attention to that, as he too was exhausted from the battle. He found a spot to lie down a little bit away from the fire so he was in some of the darkness. He closed his eyes to fall asleep and heard the voice return, "You did a good job tonight TK. Rest up, you'll need it for your upcoming battles."


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon

This chapter is being posted a little later than I intended, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this chapter. I did skip ahead a little bit, but I did it to keep away from what would be boring parts for me to write and for you to read. I liked this chapter as I like writing about the darkness and exploring the concept of good and evil in darkness. And this chapter even has a different perspective for a little bit. Let me know what you guys think in a nifty review!

BTW: Italics = Flashback

* * *

Chapter 8:

Silence. That was all that could be heard save for the faint train horn or occasional conversation from the few others with them on the train. Matt didn't know what to say. This was the first time in who knows how long that he was finally alone with his brother.

Since their parents had split up, TK and their mother had moved to the Setagaya ward, while he and his father moved to Odaiba. When they had returned to the real world, they had decided that the eighth child was their main priority and that they needed to find him or her before Myotismon. He and TK had gone through Odaiba and didn't find any trace of the second child. All of the walking caused his body to ache and he felt extra tired, even though it was only a little after seven.

He had decided he was going to take TK all the way home, as it was his responsibility to make sure his brother kept safe. He already was mad at himself for not doing his job so far and not noticing his brother had been in darkness for so long. This was the only way he could make sure his conscience was clear.

"It's sure late," TK said quietly.

He didn't budge as he replied, "Yeah, so...?"

"The next stop's good enough."

"No," he instantly answered, "I'm going to take you all the way home little brother."

"You don't have to..."

"I know I don't have to but I'm going to ok!?" he said sharply, but quickly added, "I've got my reasons."

"What reasons?" TK inquired.

"You're my brother," he replied simply.

TK initially looked annoyed by his answer, but then TK gave a light smile and said, "Thanks Matt."

He inwardly smiled. Despite all that TK had went through, TK was still able to bring a smile to his face. It was hard to imagine TK was full of the darkness that Gennai had talked about.

* * *

 _"You must learn to use your power the way... Myotismon is using his."_

 _Things weren't looking good. They weren't able to stop Myotismon from entering their world. Myotismon was only a mile away from their hometown and their friends and loved ones. They were still stuck in the Digital World. And their only way of getting home was extremely risky and could end in disaster._

 _But if that wasn't enough, he also had his little brother to worry about. Tai told him the story of TK and Patamon fighting DemiDevimon and then disappearing once they found each other at Digitamamon's restaurant. Then, after they Birdramon digivolved to Garudamon and they were able to escape Myotismon, Gennai contacted them telling them to go to Myotismon's castle and also explained what happened to TK. Gennai hadn't said much, but he promised them that they would see TK at Myotismon's castle._

 _TK wasn't the same, though. In fact, TK didn't seem the same since the SkullGreymon incident, but Matt had figured TK was just acting out of worry or fear or something. He had no idea his brother had been "attacked by the darkness" as Gennai had said earlier, and he felt like the worst big brother because of it. But now that Gennai and TK were here, he was going to get some answers and help his brothers as much as he could._

 _Surprisingly, he wasn't the first person to speak up as Izzy said, "Gennai, will you tell us more of what happened to TK? We all are still confused as to what is happening to him and how we can help."_

 _"Yeah," Tai added, "Tell us Gennai!"_

 _Gennai looked at TK, who was sitting right beside him never speaking up once during their entire conversation. In fact, TK hadn't spoken since he had joined the others, other than greeting them and telling them that he was alright. TK didn't return the look, causing Gennai to sigh._

 _Gennai then explained how Devimon put some sort of dark device inside TK when battling Angemon, and then how Greymon digivolving to SkullGreymon activated the device. Gennai then explained how TK's crest was the crest of hope, but the darkness had corrupted the crest, digivice, and Patamon, as well as the effects the darkness had on TK's personality._

 _The others kept asking Gennai questions as he kept a close eye on his brother. He could tell TK was not comfortable about them talking about him and he asked, "Are you ok TK?"_

 _TK didn't even look at him. "I'm fine."_

 _He didn't want to upset his brother, so he figured it would be best not to push TK any further. Instead he put an arm around his brother's shoulders. At first TK recoiled from his touch, but then TK relaxed in his embrace._

 _The conversation continued, but Gennai kept reassuring them that TK was going to be fine as long as he was able to return to the light. The whole thing made him uncomfortable, as Gennai and the others talked as if there was something wrong with TK. Maybe there was, but it didn't sit with him._

 _"You're making it sound like TK is broken and needs to be fixed," Matt said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "I mean, he protected Piximon as well as all of us. I don't think that's something wrong that needs to be changed."_

 _"That is true Matt, but using the darkness, like TK has been doing, is extremely risky. It is very easy to lose yourself in darkness, and if TK continues to meddle with the darkness, then it will become easier for him to lose all of his hope. And if that happens, the dark forces will win."_

 _"Then fix me!" TK shouted, ending his silence. "You seem so worried about what will happen, but you don't have any clue on how to help me!"_

 _"TK, calm down," he said, but TK stood up, glaring at Gennai. Everyone looked at him with scared and worried expressions on their face as TK started emanating a dark aura. After a long moment, TK's face relaxed and the aura faded away. TK then turned and started running away._

 _"TK!" he called out, getting up to follow his brother, but he was stopped in his tracks._

 _"Stop, Matt. Let him go!" Gennai ordered._

 _"And why should I listen to you?" he asked angrily._

 _"Because your brother is in danger."_

 _At that he turned around and worry took over. "What do you mean?"_

 _"TK has been using the darkness for quite some time now. It already has affected his partner, digivice, and crest, but now it is starting to change him. The TK you remember is being taken over by darkness, and if you all don't stop it, then our worlds will be doomed."_

 _"How do we help the little guy then, Gennai?" Tai asked._

 _"Find the eighth digidestined and bring TK back to the light. All of you digidestineds have light inside of you; share that light with TK to bring back his own."_

 _"What do you mean by sharing our light?" Izzy asked._

 _Sora responded, "I think he means our crests. We need to show TK love, friendship, reliability, and so on."_

 _"That is right Sora. Once you all truly understand your crests, you will be able to share that with TK and help bring back the hope inside of him. It is our only hope."_

 _They all nodded, understanding what they had to do._

* * *

Since then, everyone paid close attention to TK and tried to act their best around him. It was hard for the others as being around TK seemed to make you feel sad and... dark. He could tell the others were not comfortable being around TK, but the darkness felt familiar to him. The more he was around TK, the more he thought about their parents' divorce and the long, lonely nights at home when his dad worked late and he was home alone. The feelings and memories he had long tried to repress from his memory were the ones that popped up when he was around TK, and he wasn't quite sure whether this was a good thing or not.

He didn't notice the train came to a stop or the sound of wings flapping, but he did hear TK calling out "Tsukaimon!"

He looked up just quickly enough to see Tsukaimon fly out of the train, closely followed by TK. He instinctively sprung to his feet and ran after his brother, remembering to grab Tsunomon and then place the digimon underneath his arm.

"TK!" he yelled, as he ran after his brother. TK had run outside of the station and was following Tsukaimon, who was flying through the city at a fast rate. Finally, TK and Tsukaimon stopped and he was able to catch up with TK.

"T.. TK! Why did you... run away...?" he asked, trying to catch his breath.

TK ignored his question. "What are you two doing here?" TK asked, a harsh tone to his voice.

It was only then that Matt noticed the two digimon that TK was glaring at. One digimon had a pumpkin for a head and an axe stuck into the pumpkin head. The other digimon looked like a rock statue that had come to life. Neither of them seemed to pose a threat, but TK was shooting daggers at them.

"We're running!" the pumpkin digimon spoke up.

"From what?" he asked, deciding he would speak up.

"From something very scary, a teenager!" the rock digimon answered.

"In fact, you guys should hide too!" the pumpkin digimon said, grabbing TK and him by the arms and running around a corner.

Sure enough, a teenage girl approached him asking where the two digimon had gone, and he lied to the girl, sending her off in the wrong direction. The two digimon behind him sighed in relief.

"Now, who are you two digimon?" he asked.

Unexpectedly, Tsunomon digivolved to Gabumon and glared at the digimon harshly.

"These two are Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon and they both work for Myotismon!" Gabumon answered.

"What?" he exclaimed, now understanding why Tsunomon had digivolved. He was shocked that these two digimon worked for Myotismon, but then he remembered, "Did Myotismon send you two here to find someone?"

"Yeah, that eighth digidestined kid," Pumpkinmon said.

His face grew stern as he carefully watched the two digimon, "Then you're our enemy!"

"No we're not, we just want to cruise around the city and have some fun!"

"But we thought you two were evil digimon?" he wondered aloud.

The two digimon then struck a pose and said innocently, "Evil, schmevil. We love it here! In fact, next stop Hollywood!"

"Typical, everyone always wants to be in showbusiness," Gabumon muttered.

"Lights! Cameras! And action!"

At that, he, Gabumon, TK, and Tsukaimon all looked at each other. TK had a puzzled look on his face, and he wondered what exactly his brother was thinking...

* * *

He was confused by the two "evil" digimon. Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon worked for Myotismon, and it was their dark energy that had caused him and Tsukaimon to run out of the train in the first place, but Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon seemed to be a different type of dark. Rather than trying to destroy and hurt people and digimon, these digimon simply wanted to play around and have fun no matter who may get hurt along the way. He had already chased after them around the city with Matt as the two servant digimon jumped onto a traffic light causing many accidents, broke into a store and tried on clothes that did not belong to them, and stole ice cream from some lady. Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon intrigued him, as they seemed to represent a different kind of darkness than he was accustomed to.

One thing that was for sure, he and Matt weren't afraid of these digimon, even though they worked for darkness. That was more than he could say of his friends. Ever since he had rejoined the others and Gennai had told them about what happened to him, the others acted very uncomfortable around him. It didn't help with the incident at Gennai's place...

* * *

 _Anger and rage were building up inside of him as Gennai talked to the others about what was going on with him. Gennai was so opposed against the darkness and treated him like he was a threat to Gennai, the other digidestineds, and the Digital World. But at the same time, Gennai never offered any solution. The whole situation was frustrating and his anger continued to build up until he couldn't take anymore of the conversation._

 _"Then fix me!" TK shouted, ending his silence. "You seem so worried about what will happen, but you don't have any clue on how to help me!"_

 _He noticed that everyone was staring at him and Matt had uttered something to try to calm him down, but he focused his intense gaze on Gennai, allowing the anger inside of him to flow through his entire body. He barely noticed the dark aura he was emanating, but when he did he saw the fear in his friends' eyes. He instantly regained control of the anger, ashamed of himself for losing control. He didn't want to be there anymore, so he ran._

 _He ran as fast as he could, ignoring his brother shouting his name from behind. He ran until he found the exit to Gennai's house and ran up the stairs until he was finally gone from that place. Bending over and placing his hands on his knees, he allowed himself to catch his breath, a soft breeze cooling him off from the exertion of energy. Once he caught his breath, he listened for anyone that could be following him, most likely his brother, but he didn't hear anything except the flapping of his partner's wings._

 _As Tsukaimon landed on top of his head, he asked his partner, "Are we alone?"_

 _"Yes," Tsukaimon said quietly, and he walked over to a nearby tree and sat with his back rested against the trunk._

 _He sighed heavily as his rage subsided and was replaced with guilt and sorrow for losing control. Maybe Gennai was right about the powers of darkness..._

 _"He's not right."_

 _He instantly looked around for the source of the voice, and as he did so he heard a slight chuckle._

 _"I'm in your head, TK."_

 _Instantly it clicked that this was the voice he had heard before battling the Gururumon, the voice of the 'Darkness.'_

 _Although the voice was better company than Gennai or any of the others, he still was annoyed that he wasn't alone. He had only been together with the others for a day, but he already felt like he didn't belong with them, and he had a foreboding thought that he didn't belong anywhere._

 _"There is always a place for darkness, TK."_

 _He was initially shocked by the voice's response to his thought, but he shook it off quickly._

 _"I don't know about that," he thought back, "All of my friends, even my own brother, seem to be afraid of me."_

 _The voice's tone changed to that of sadness, "The path of darkness is a lonely road."_

 _"Then what's the point of sticking with the others?" he asked._

 _"You need them and they need you," the voice responded simply._

 _"But they're afraid of me! Even my own brother!"_

 _"They're not afraid of you, TK. They're afraid of the darkness and afraid of what may happen to you."_

 _He snorted in disapproval. "You didn't see their faces just now. It was like they thought I was Myotismon, ready to attack."_

 _"TK, you forget, I am a part of you now; I am always with you."_

 _"Me too," Tsukaimon spoke up._

 _TK was shocked; this was the first time he realized that Tsukaimon could also hear the voice as well. He looked at his partner sympathetically, as he was complaining about the others fearing him and a big part of that reason was Tsukaimon and his digivolution. When they had tried to stop Myotismon from going through the gate, they had to battle some Devidramon. He heard the others' comments of the dragon digimon, and he made sure Tsukaimon didn't get involved in any of the fighting so the others didn't see his partner become a 'monster.'_

 _After a few moments of silence, he asked, "What's the point of you talking to me again?"_

 _"I can tell that you are troubled and questioning yourself."_

 _"Yeah, so what do you care?"_

 _The voice sighed. "You may not understand who I am, TK, but I care about you."_

 _"If you care about me, then why don't you get out of me?! Make me normal again!"_

 _He ended up shouting that last statement and realized his body was shaking vigorously in anger. At least this time none of the others were around him to be afraid of him._

 _There was a brief moment of silence before the voice spoke up, "I don't think that's what you want."_

 _The voice was right. Although it may be easier for him and everyone else if this darkness thing never happened to him, but to some point he was glad that it did. He felt like he was stronger because of what happened to him. He felt like he was closer to his digimon partner, even though Tsukaimon rarely spoke. He felt like he was..._ more _than what he was before._

 _"Darkness is empowering," the voice said, confirming his thoughts._

 _He only had to remember the evil digimon that he and the others had faced so far in the Digital World to know that the voice was telling the truth._

 _"You have seen how darkness can be used for evil and also for protection. There are other ways beings use the powers of darkness, but there is one constant among all of these uses, and that is the strength of the powers of darkness. That is why Gennai and your friends are afraid of the darkness."_

 _"But," he wondered, "Why is darkness so powerful?"_

 _"Well, why is the light so powerful?"_

 _He thought about the question before answering, "Because it shines, even in the darkest places. It brings hope, like the light at the end of the tunnel."_

 _"And this is exactly why darkness is so powerful."_

 _He wasn't following the voice's logic, so it continued, "Darkness is the only thing that can penetrate the light. Just as light brings hope, so does the darkness."_

 _"Balance," he responded, remembering part of their first conversation._

 _"That's right, and it is exactly why you need to use the darkness against this evil force. Gennai wants to eradicate all of the darkness from the Digital World and bring it into light, but there must be darkness for the world to avoid chaos. That is why you must learn to control the powers of darkness and use them to get rid of the evil forces, that way darkness still remains, but the evil threat is gone."_

 _He let what the voice said sink in a little before asking, "Why does Gennai and the others think that darkness is evil?"_

 _"For them, they have only experienced light that is good and darkness that is evil. But there does exist light that is evil and darkness that is good. It is much easier to act on good intentions in the light, just as it is much easier to act on evil intentions in the darkness. Very few are able to do the opposite."_

 _TK nodded in understanding. He felt a lot calmer talking to the voice, and more of his questions had been answered. But his negative feelings did not change; the others were still scared of him and Tsukaimon and Gennai was still opposed to the darkness._

 _"You said I needed the others," TK thought aloud, "What do you mean?"_

 _"Your friends will help you out from the evil in your darkness, if you are to start losing yourself. And you are there for your friends to help them control their own inner darkness."_

 _"Then, why did you say darkness is lonely?"_

 _The voice sighed, "Not everyone finds the darkness as comforting as you, TK. Their crests and personalities simply don't allow them. You are the only one who will feel what true darkness feels like. Like I have said, the others will not be able to control the darkness like you, so it is impossible for them to join you in your darkness. You will be alone..."_

 _At this he dropped his head, looking at the ground. He liked being alone, but he also dreaded it as well. He wished he found more comfort in being surrounded by his friends, especially his brother, but the voice was right. He could not open himself up and invite the others to join him in his darkness. He really was alone._

 _He then felt Tsukaimon jump off his head. The purple Patamon flew right in front of his face, and he looked confusedly at his partner._

 _"You will never be alone, TK," Tsukaimon reassured._

 _A tear rolled down his face. "Thanks," he whispered gratefully to his partner, raising his arms and bringing his partner in for a hug._

 _They stayed there for a while, TK wallowing in his darkness with Tsukaimon in his arms. The voice didn't say anything, but he could tell it was pleased with them._

 _"You two have surprised me, maybe it is possible to not be alone in the darkness."_

 _He could tell the voice was wondering about something and was really thinking, but soon the voice's presence faded away with an "Until next time."_

 _Once he and Tsukaimon were alone, he had calmed down enough to return to Gennai's place. He hadn't noticed how much time had passed, as all of the others were getting beds ready to sleep. Gennai was nowhere to be seen, which he was grateful for. He was about to enter the room they all would be sleeping in before he realized they were having a conversation._

 _"Can you believe all of this stuff with TK and the darkness?" Tai asked._

 _"It most definitely is bizarre," Izzy replied, "It is difficult to believe that TK is still the embodiment of hope despite this darkness."_

 _"Did you guys feel the strange vibe he was giving off?" Sora asked to no one in particular._

 _Joe was relieved, "Oh good, I thought I was the only one who noticed."_

 _"It made me feel all icky and sad," Mimi explained, "It made me miss home and going shopping and hanging out with my friends and having a spa day and..."_

 _"Mimi," Matt said warningly, as if telling the girl of sincerity to stop._

 _Mimi gave an apologetic look to Matt, "Sorry Matt, I got carried away."_

 _"TK's presence made me recollect learning that I was..." Izzy started but then instantly stopped._

 _"You were what, Izzy?" Tai asked._

 _Izzy started fidgeting nervously. TK then seemed to feel the darkness that was coming from Izzy, and he instantly knew what the bearer of knowledge was referring to._

 _"Well, you see... uh..." Izzy muttered._

 _"He's talking about when he learned he was adopted."_

 _TK then entered the room, noticing all eyes focusing on him. Izzy blushed red but looked at him with a confused stare._

 _"I never told anyone. It is practically impossible that you would know that, TK," Izzy stated. Izzy seemed more nervous than any of them had seen before._

 _"Call it intuition," TK replied. He then noticed everyone giving him uneasy looks. Izzy was confused, Mimi and Joe were nervous and afraid, and Tai and Sora and Matt were both confused and nervous. He remembered the voice's warning, "The path of darkness is a lonely road."_

* * *

Over time he had come to realize that part of the reason the darkness was so strong was because of the fear it invoked on its targets. But Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon were not digimon that needed to be feared; they used their darkness for different reasons. And at the same time, Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon were both happy.

Before he had any more time to think more about the digimon, a chill ran down his spine as a thundercloud appeared out of random. As a lightning bolt came crashing to the ground, realization struck him. Myotismon.

Sure enough, the vampire digimon stood there glaring at him, his brother, and the two servants.

"Myotismon," Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon both stated nervously.

"Losers, failures!"

"No no! Don't say that!"

"Instead of causing pain and suffering, I find you here eating ice cream."

"Well it is stolen..."

"I don't care about ice cream! Have you found the eighth digidestined child yet?"

"Well, we were about to find him."

"Redeem yourselves by stealing the crests from these children, or else!"

"No problem boss, that's just what we were about to do!"

At that moment, Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon both turned and glared at him, his brother, and their digimon. Now he could see the darkness inside of these two digimon turned on, just like a light switch; their cheerful and playful demeanor long gone.

Matt decided to run, so he, Gabumon, and Tsukaimon all followed suit, with Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon close behind.

They ran for a long time down an abandoned sidewalk, but somehow Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon had surrounded them and they were forced to back into an alley.

Despite all of this, he wasn't afraid. It was as if he could tell that Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon really didn't want to fight them.

Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon were walking closer, Gabumon growling, ready to fight if necessary. Matt took a ready stance as well, a hand on his digivice. As they got closer the two digimon suddenly stopped.

"Uh, I quit."

"Agh, me too!"

"Why should we fight? Somebody always gets hurt. Besides, it's way more fun just hanging out and cruising around the city!"

"That's for sure. Hey! Why don't you guys hang out with us?"

Matt and Gabumon were astonished, but he was just simply more intrigued by the two digimon. Despite working for Myotismon, there is a purity and innocence to them. It seemed like Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon just wanted to be their friends. He wondered if this was a part of the "good" evil the voice had alluded to.

Another chill and another lightning bolt... Myotismon.

"Uh oh! Myotismon's coming!"

"You should all hide!"

"Quiet," Matt whispered, grabbing him and hiding deep in the alley behind a wall.

"Where are the digidestineds?"

"Uh, they were here just a second ago. They must have got away!"

"Yeah, you can't believe how fast they are, but we almost had them boss."

"Yes, I can imagine." The tone of Myotismon's voice foreshadowed a violent outbreak. "You had your chance. Now I'm condemning you to my dungeon in the digi-world! Grisly Wing!"

Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon cried out in pain, but attempted to retaliate.

"Pumpkinmon Power!"

"Rock Fist Attack!"

Myotismon handled the assault with minimal effort, and the sound of the vampire's bats eating and tearing away at Pumpkinmon's and Gotsumon's data was the only sound that could be heard, save for the cries of pain from the two digimon.

His body started shaking, but it wasn't because of his anger; it was Matt's anger.

"Well, that wasn't very difficult. Now it's your turn."

"Those two just wanted to be our friends. They were really trying to save us. And you just condemned them for no reason at all!"

At that, a white light shone from Matt's digivice causing Gabumon to glow in response. The familiar digivolution took place, revealing an angry Garurumon.

Garurumon quickly lunged at Myotismon, sending him into a wall, but Myotismon punched back forcing Garurumon away.

"Go get him," Matt ordered.

"Howling Blaster!" Garurumon fired at Myotismon, landing a direct hit. Myotismon quickly recovered and launched his own attack, "Crimson Lightning!"

As Garurumon was struck by Myotismon's attack, Matt spoke, "He should pay for what he did to those two. Those guys just wanted to be our friends. Garurumon!"

Instantly, Matt's crest started glowing blue and his digivice started shaking. Myotismon's attack had caused Garurumon to fly backwards towards a building, but before Garurumon hit, he had digivolved to WereGarurumon.

WereGarurumon was able to cushion the blow and dove right back towards Myotismon, fist extended. The two lunged to punch each other and ended up in a stalemate.

He watched the battle, attempting to control his own anger and rage. What if he made Tsukaimon digivolve and Matt then became afraid of him too. He liked being with his brother because he was one of the only ones who didn't seem to dislike being around him. But what if Tsukaimon digivolved and Matt became just like everyone else.

While he was thinking about all of that, the battle still waged on. Right now, WereGarurumon was atop a roof of some building defenseless. Myotismon struck with his Crimson Lightning, and the cry from WereGarurumon could be heard loud and clear, causing him and Matt to wince. As Myotismon kept attacking, his anger continued to grow and grow until he knew that he had no choice.

"Tsukaimon, go!" he ordered.

At the word, Tsukaimon charged towards Myotismon. His digivice started vibrating and a black light emanated from it. Tsukaimon glowed the same black and started changing forms to the dragon beast, Devidramon.

Myotismon, too focused on torturing WereGarurumon, did not notice Devidramon flying in from behind.

"Crimson Claw!"

At the sound, Myotismon turned and quickly dodged the attack. But the whips from the Crimson Lightning broke, releasing WereGarurumon.

He could feel the unease coming from his brother, and he noticed that WereGarurumon was also confused as well. Myotismon only smiled.

"A Devidramon, from the child of hope. I see that your crest really has changed."

Devidramon didn't give Myotismon the courtesy of listening as he yelled "Demonic Gale!"

Devidramon flew back and slashed at the air at an astounding speed, launching a shockwave straight at Myotismon, who was hit dead on and let out a grunt of pain.

Suddenly, a blue and green light shone in the sky, catching all of their attentions.

"It's time I take my leave; we will fight again!"

With that, Myotismon flew away towards the light, and WereGarurumon and Devidramon both started glowing their different colors and changed back to their rookie forms.

Only then did he feel a substantial amount of energy leave him, causing him to feel weak and tired. He also stopped biting his lip, which he must have been doing before to help keep control of his darkness. Licking the bleeding lip, he willed his body forward towards Tsukaimon.

Once he was there, he dropped to his knees. "Hey, buddy, you ok?"

Tsukaimon slightly opened his eyes, nodded, and then shut his eyes again. Relieved that his partner was alright, he picked Tsukaimon up and perched him on top of his head, allowing his partner to rest peacefully.

He then turned towards Matt and Gabumon who both were looking at him with worry etched across their faces. He could also sense there was a little bit of fear and confusion in their looks, but he couldn't worry about that too much. After all, he had to have Tsukaimon digivolve to help rescue WereGarurumon. Whether or not Matt and Gabumon feared him and Tsukaimon did not bother him too much; he just was happy to have protected his brother, keep Tsukaimon safe, and control the darkness at the same time. Looking up into the night sky, he couldn't help but give a small, grateful smile.


End file.
